Seahawks’ Pete Carroll plans to put Russell Wilson through a football Master’s program
Jan 18, 2016, 12:53 PM | Updated: 2:04 pm
Pete Carroll plans to put Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson through a Master's program, of sorts. (AP)
(AP)
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Russell Wilson made some obvious leaps in his game in the 2015-16 season, specifically in the second half, but Pete Carroll plans to put the fourth-year quarterback through a Master’s program of sorts to enhance his already solid grip of the game. He said on “The Pete Carroll Show” that they even set up a schedule on the airplane ride home from Sunday’s season-ending loss to Carolina.
“We’re going to really learn football this offseason,” Carroll said. “We’re going to go much deeper into different areas than what he’s had to focus at. He was asking, ‘How do you want to do that?’ So we already set up a little schedule of how we’ll do our stuff. I want to take him to the other side of the football and I want him to understand it to the lengths that will start him really owning the whole football game.”
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Carroll said this is the kind of learning that “the great ones” learn over the course of time.
“I want to accelerate the process for Russell; now he’s ready,” Carroll said. “He can command what we’re doing on offense. He’ll get better at all that stuff, too. But we need to just get him a better understanding of everything that’s going on in the game. It’s the same with Earl (Thomas). I talked to Earl about the exact same thing last night. I want him to understand the game more deeply. And Kam (Chancellor), and all those guys, to embrace all of the information that’s out there to make them a better player.”
Even though the Seahawks’ 10-6 regular-season record was Seattle’s worst since drafting Wilson, he set career highs in almost every important QB stat, including completions (329), completion percentage (68.1), yards (4,024), touchdowns (34 passing, 1 rushing) and QB rating (110.1). He did all that while still rushing for 553 yards.
While much of that success came during a historic stretch from Weeks 11 through 17, Carroll said Wilson’s offseason contract extension was likely a factor in his growth.
“I think getting all the contract stuff behind him was really important,” he said. “He turned right to the job at hand. There were no issues at all. I think he was really consistent with his approach, the way he came across, the results grew throughout the season. You can see we have a marvelous player and leader.”
