Seahawks Spotlight: Why Luke Willson personally doesn’t like going up-tempo
Sep 27, 2017, 7:13 AM | Updated: 9:54 am
Luke Willson joined "Danny, Dave and Moore" for what they hope will be a weekly visit.
This is “Not The Luke Willson Show.”
We need to make that clear from the beginning. Because if it was “The Luke Willson Show” then that would cause issues that are explained over the course of this interview.
Seattle’s tight end also explained why he expected to get hit harder after making his touchdown catch in Tennessee and he was bluntly honest when Jim Moore asked if he likes it when the team uses an up-tempo offense.
“Personally, no,” Willson said. “But if it’s successful and it’s what’s best for the team, I’m down. I’m going to support everybody, but usually when we go up-tempo there’s only one tight end in the game. I kind of like the two tight end stuff a little bit more. That’s why I said, ‘personally.’ ”
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“On a serious note,” Willson continued, “the thing about our offense that has been frustrating I think for everybody is that on paper – which clearly doesn’t matter – but on paper, we can do a variety of different things. We have the ability to go up-tempo. We’ve got a ton of talent at wideout. Speed guys. Big guys. We’ve got Jimmy (Graham), myself, Nick (Vannett). We’ve got tight ends that can all catch the ball.
“It’s like, yeah, we can really get that up-tempo offense going, but at the same time I do think we have the personnel – which we haven’t shown yet – to be able to load up three tight ends or get in full backfield with Tre (Madden) and two tight ends or a big tight end and really run the ball downhill.
“So I think it’s a week-to-week thing on what we think will be successful kind of based on what the defense is giving us.”
And there’s one more thing he noted about an up-tempo offense. Sometimes the pace will work against an offense.
“The thing about up-tempo is when it works everyone is like, ‘Wow, the up-tempo is really working,’ ” Willson said. “But when it doesn’t work, you don’t really know that we’re trying to go up-tempo because it’s not working.”
Willson also explained why Graham is his best friend on the team and he spells out exactly what happened in the hotel elevator in Nashville that prompted one Seahawks “fan” to curse his name in the lobby the next morning.
In other words, it is a typical Willson appearance on “Danny, Dave and Moore.” In that he is typically engaging, offbeat and more than willing to express a conspiracy theory now and again.
Of particular note, Willson explains that there has been a move to incorporate techno music (or EDM as the kids are calling it these days) into the practice rotation. Specifically, Techno Thursdays, and he discussed the possibility of a touchdown celebration that will turn into a techno party with lots of fist pumping and jumping around.
