Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks see Russell Wilson in Week 1, but the franchise has not yet decided on the starter who will replace the new quarterback of the Denver Broncos.
Since trading Wilson to Denver for Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant and draft picks, the Seahawks have tested veteran Geno Smith and Lock in an ongoing competition to take the reins of the Seattle offense. The Broncos and Seahawks open in Seattle on “Monday Night Football” on Sept. 12.
“I’m going to take the time it takes to figure it out and make sure we have all the information that we need,” Carroll said. “I can’t wait to see what happens in this game. Geno’s done a good job and Geno needs a little more help from some guys — they got to be able to catch the football a little better — but he’s handled it well. You go back, Drew has had three drives and had two touchdown drives, so he’s put some stuff on the resume out there.
“So we’ll see what happens this week. And we do have really good weeks of practice coming up. This week is a great one, next week is a great one and the one after is a great one so we’ll use all of that if we need it.”
As of now, there is no clear winner of the duel, which was essentially paused while Lock battled COVID-19 for a week.
“He did OK today. He seemed to bounce back,” Carroll said of Lock returning to practice Sunday. “He’s six, seven days into it now, so he’s in good shape as far as getting back. But you never know until you get out there and start running around. He hung in there, tough, so that’s good.”
Carroll said he might share later in the week his plans for Friday’s preseason finale against the Dallas Cowboys.
Smith had the opportunity to distance himself from Lock last week but suffered a bone bruise in his knee and exited a lopsided loss to the Chicago Bears.
Carroll said Smith is fine physically and both quarterbacks are available this week.
Wilson was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and played in two Super Bowls with the Seahawks before he was traded to Denver on March 8.
–Field Level Media