Russell Wilson drama ‘old news’, says Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has reassured that quarterback Russell Wilson is ‘fired up’ to play with Seattle this upcoming season following recent uncertainty over his future with the team.

Wilson trigged a fan and media frenzy earlier this offseason when he underlined his frustration over the regular punishment he has endured behind Seattle’s offensive line over the years during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, as well as forwarding his desire to have a more prominent say in personnel decisions made by the Seahawks.

His admittance that he wasn’t sure if he was ‘available’ for a trade meanwhile raised further doubt over where he would be playing in 2021 as the New Orleans Saints, Las Vegas Raiders, Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys emerged as his supposed shortlist of preferred destinations.

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The saga proved relatively short-lived, one Carroll deemed ‘old news’ during an interview on The Rich Eisen Show.

“It seems like really old news to talk about this because it’s been such a long time,” said Carroll. “The little bit he said carried so much air time that it became bigger than life. Throughout the whole process, Russell, we’ve always been connected. We’ve always been talking. We’ve never not been in communication, and we weren’t at all in this time either.

“A couple of things that came out got magnified and the questions came out, and there was a couple of things. He was frustrated when he was talking, just like any of us can sometimes emphasise something that’s on the top of our mind, and it can be played differently than it really played itself out.”

The Seahawks drafted a league-high 16 offensive lineman between 2010 and 2016 and six over the last five years, including 2021 sixth-round tackle Stone Forsythe. However, Wilson has been sacked 394 times in 144 regular season outings since being drafted in 2012 – more than any other quarterback in the NFL.

His comments followed another frustrating finish to the season as the Seahawks were beaten by the Los Angeles Rams on Wild Card weekend.

“We’ve had a really good offseason of working, and there was an ongoing media discussion that I did not take part in, [General Manager] John [Schneider] and I did not, we refused to be party to that, and Russ did what he could once he saw it happening, to stay as quiet as he could because it was going to play and have a life of its own anyway.

“What it amounted to was I think a refocusing, making sure that we were on the same page, making sure that we were clear so that we could withstand any of the scrutiny that would come towards us, and we did that.

“He is fired up about his team. He’s fired up about his coaching staff. He’s fired up about the season coming up.”

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