The Russell Wilson drama is the story that seemingly won’t end, as every few months brings us a tantalizing new nugget to the story. A bombshell report in The Athletic chronicled Wilson’s cataclysmic first season in Denver. The biggest piece of new information is an allegation Wilson tried to get general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll fired, something he categorically denies.
However, there is another part to the story that caught my eye in particular, and it’s about wristbands.
Wind the clock back to early November, 2022. Carroll was on his weekly segment with the Brock and Salk Show on Seattle Sports Radio. When asked by co-host Brock Huard about how the Seahawks offense seems far more cleaned up and efficient pre-snap, Carroll gave a lengthy explanation which can he heard here. But one soundbite stands out above the rest.
“If you notice, Geno’s going off the wristband, and that’s a big help,” Carroll said. “It’s smoothed things out, sped things up, cleaned things up. And that’s part of it, too. We never did that before. There was resistance to that, so we didn’t do that before.”
This is obviously a criticism of former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who shot back at Carroll not long after.
Russell Wilson was asked about Pete Carroll's comments regarding the use of Geno Smith wearing a wristband this season:
"Won a lot of games without one on the wrist" 👀 pic.twitter.com/Jzi3PDWnep
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 9, 2022
Of course, the issue isn’t winning or losing, it’s about maximizing offensive efficiency. The Seahawks did win a lot of games with Wilson at the helm, but there were also plenty of instances – even in wins – where the offense looked clunky, disjointed, slow, and bizarre time management… an issue which followed Wilson to Denver.
In The Athletic’s report, the story chronicles the Broncos’ Week 2 game against the Texans where the crowd was famously chanting down the play clock to help the Denver offense avoid yet another delay of game penalty. Former Broncos head coach took responsibility at the time, but The Athletic reported on a different side to the story.
“Several team sources said Hackett typically relayed the play calls to Wilson with 20-25 seconds remaining on the 40-second play clock, and that this was the case against Houston, leaving more than enough time. Those sources said Wilson sometimes struggled to repeat the calls efficiently or offered too much instruction to teammates in the huddle.”
Perhaps Carroll’s November comments about a wristband wasn’t simply just him being petty, as some suggested.
