Seahawks OC Darrell Bevell on Trevone Boykin’s debut in the huddle
Aug 16, 2016, 1:24 PM | Updated: Aug 17, 2016, 8:50 am
RENTON – One of the challenges that rookie Trevone Boykin faces as he tries to win a job as the Seahawks’ backup quarterback is his inexperience in calling plays in the huddle, something he wasn’t asked to do while running a spread offense at TCU. That made Seattle’s preseason opener a test of how well Boykin could communicate in a game situation, amid the noise of an opposing crowd and without a coach nearby to correct him when he flubs his lines.
Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said Tuesday that it “went about the way I expected” for Boykin, which is to say that it wasn’t perfect but not bad, either.
“He’s doing a great job of being in his book and he’s studying, he’s working, but those plays are long and have a lot of words to them,” Bevell said. “Every now and then he had a couple struggles, but for the most part he was on his stuff, did a nice job. The cool part is that it didn’t hamper his play, so he was still able to play fast and play well; he wasn’t thinking.”
Boykin finished 16 for 26 for 188 yards, a touchdown and no turnovers. His touchdown came on a 37-yard pass to Tanner McEvoy as time expired in the fourth quarter, which pulled Seattle to within a point and set up the winning two-point conversion. That throw was the culmination of a four-play, 88-yard drive that Boykin led after taking over with 67 seconds on the clock and no timeouts remaining.
Boykin said the first play of that drive – an 18-yard completion over the middle to Montario Hunter – was the throw he was most proud of. Bevell liked it as well. He also liked how Boykin kept his composure amid the pre-snap chaos on Seattle’s final play. Bevell said Boykin was trying to get players aligned for a certain play but had the clock awareness to know there wouldn’t be time, so he made a quick change and got the snap off with 4 seconds left.
“That’s something that we’ve seen out here,” Bevell said. “He’s never really panicked, he’s never gotten nervous. Even though he makes mistakes, they kind of just roll right off, he kind of just goes with the flow. That part of it is good. You really like that guy out there to be even-keel and a never-let-them-see-you-sweat kind of a guy, and he’s able to do that.”
