Congrats if you had the first week in October in your “when will the Seahawks have a quarterback controversy?” pool.
Following Sunday’s loss, which again featured very little offense, more and more people are wondering if the Seahawks should consider making a change at quarterback (if you have any doubt that this is topic No. 1, turn on a sports radio station at some point today).
There is plenty of blame to go around for Sunday’s loss that has little to do with rookie quarterback Russell Wilson. There were dumb personal foul penalties, the Rams caught the Seahawks napping with a fake field goal, there were some questionable coaching decision, most notably the onside kick to start the second half that set up a Rams field goal, as well as some interesting play calling on third and short.
But this is a quarterback driven sport, so when the offense is struggling, people will want to talk about that position, particularly when the Seahawks picked Wilson over Matt Flynn, who they signed in March. Pete Carroll chose Wilson prior to the start of the season not because they want to build a young team around a rookie quarterback, but because he and his coaching staff thought Wilson was the better quarterback. A lot of Seattle’s struggles in the passing game have had to do with Carroll’s philosophy more than the play of Wilson. As Carroll put it last week, they’re keeping a lid on the offense right now, trying to win with defense, a strong rushing attack and special teams play. But Wilson has had his struggles as well, and it’s impossible not to wonder how the offense might look with Flynn under center.
All of that being said, however, change isn’t coming, at least not this week. Carroll, who will have his weekly press conference later today, was on 710 ESPN Seattle this morning and said that even if he wanted to make a change, he can’t right now. Flynn, who has been dealing with a sore elbow since the preseason, is available for games, but not yet ready to go through a full week of practice as a starter, Carroll said on the Brock and Salk Show.
“The issue that we have—we think that Russell is busting his tail to do everything and he’s getting better… we have a little bit of a problem with Matt,” Carroll said. “Matt’s still not full speed. Anybody that thinks, ‘Let’s go with the other guy,’ well he can’t practice yet. He could go in and throw it and make it through a game. He throws 15 throws a day a couple days a week, so that’s not really enough to get him ready in a game plan… So that’s not even an issue for us yet.”
And if you’re wondering (I know I was), “Wait, if Flynn can’t go through a full week of practice, why isn’t he on the injury report?” Well here’s the explanation from a team spokesman—Flynn’s game-day availability is not in question, and as a backup quarterback, he would be getting limited reps in practice all week anyway, so his current workload is not limited by the sore elbow.
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