Seahawks’ Byron Maxwell on Russell Wilson: ‘Russ is just the dude now’
Dec 28, 2017, 1:22 PM | Updated: 1:49 pm
Seahawks CB Byron Maxwell caused one of the Cowboys' three turnovers Sunday. (AP)
(AP)
Byron Maxwell reunited with the Seahawks in early November to find that everything – and nothing – had changed.
Pete Carroll’s message and system were still in place; it was the same one he’d been championing for the last seven years, and one Maxwell surely knows inside and out.
Now, though, there are dozens of new faces. And the cornerback who was once a part of Seattle’s league-best defense in 2013 returned to find a group of equally impressive veterans on the other side of the ball.
Seahawks’ CB Byron Maxwell back at the scene of his prime
“Russ is just, he’s the dude now,” Maxwell told 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny, Dave and Moore of Seahawks Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson. “He was magical back then, but things he does now, it’s really, really special. He makes a lot of plays for the team.”
Russell Wilson was receiving plenty of MVP buzz earlier this season. The debate was overshadowed by back-to-back losses against the Jaguars and Rams, but Wilson is statistically having one of his better seasons as a pro in combined passing-rushing yards and touchdowns (32).
“It just seems like the game is moving slow to him. There’s times out there I’m like, ‘Man, he really is the best player out there right now.’”
Maxwell talked about a few of his Seahawks teammates and revisited his key play on Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant during the player spotlight.
In the Seahawks’ 21-12 victory over the Cowboys Sunday in Dallas, Maxwell punched the football out of Bryant’s hands – he’d noticed Bryant would sometimes carry the ball loose – which caused a Cowboys fumble and a recovery by Seattle.
Head coach Pete Carroll called it Maxwell’s “best game yet” since his return.
“That’s one of the things I love being here,” Maxwell said. “I feel like I can take my shots on the ball, because you’ve always got guys rallying to the ball. If you look at the game, I actually missed the tackle trying to go for the ball before that, and I’ve got my guys supporting me so it makes me (think), ‘Alright, I can keep taking these shots.’ It’s good to be here and actually have guys running to the ball, and Bobby Wagner wants to make every tackle out there. It’s cool playing with that.”
