Russell Wilson limped his way through the 2016 season, but Pete Carroll expects big things from his quarterback, who is finally healthy heading into 2017.
Last season, Wilson was banged up multiple times, the first injury occurring in the first game of the season. In the end, a a high ankle sprain, a sprained MCL and a strained pectoral muscle hobbled him throughout the campaign.
Thankfully for Wilson and the Seahawks, who were extremely limited offensively because of his injuries, he’s in peak form now.
“He looks great throwing the football,” Carroll said, via Sheil Kapadia of ESPN. “He looks great moving around. It just feels so much different than it did for so long of that season. Never during that season last year did we see him in practice where he could move. Never. So he mustered it up for game time. The last five or six games, [he] could move. But it isn’t like it is now. So we’ve got to take care of him, look after him, and have tremendous expectations for Russell’s performance next year.”
The Seahawks added running back Eddie Lacy to the mix this offseason. He’s expected to take on a Beast Mode role for the team, if he can stay healthy and maintain his weight. Wilson also has a very talented group of pass catchers, including Doug Baldwin, Jimmy Graham, Tyler Lockett and C.J. Prosise.
But as we saw last year, that might not matter if the Seahawks can’t protect Wilson, who has been hit an awful lot in previous campaigns. We’re not confident the addition of Luke Joeckel will do much to help them on this front, and Seattle barely addressed the offensive line during the draft.
It’s going to be interesting to see if John Schneider’s habit of abandoning the offensive line will result in good things for Wilson this year.