Seahawks rookie Boykin working hard to emulate Wilson

Published 10:41 pm Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Trevone Boykin watches Russell Wilson. He listens to him. He tries to model his game after him.

“We’re pretty much together every day,” said Boykin, the Seattle Seahawks’ rookie quarterback. “I learn new things almost every time we get together.”

The Seahawks were without a backup quarterback before they signed Boykin as a rookie free agent this summer. They saw a Russell Wilson starter kit when they watched film of Boykin playing for the TCU Horned Frogs.

“Our games are a lot similar,” Boykin said. “He’s a great athlete. He can make stuff happen with his legs just as well as he can with his arm. We’re both talented people. Our main job is just to try to help the Seahawks win.”

Wilson sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in Week 3 against San Francisco, marking the first time he has missed a snap because of injury in his career.

Boykin played 23 snaps in that 37-18 victory over the 49ers, completing seven of nine passes for 65 yards and a touchdown. He threw an interception and finished with 94.2 passer rating.

“It felt good,” Boykin said. “At the end of the day, it’s still football. You still go out there, and you’ve still got 11 guys on offense and 11 guys on defense, and the field is still 100 yards long. You really just get out there and you just play ball. You try not to think past the next play. You try not to think about the play before. You just try to execute that one play and think about that one assignment. Then, you move onto the next.”

Since then, though, Boykin hasn’t seen the field. Wilson has played through a series of injuries while leading the Seahawks to a 6-2-1 record heading into Sunday’s game against Philadelphia.

That has proved the most difficult part of the transition to the NFL for Boykin, who ranks first in TCU history in career passing yards (10,728), attempts (1,356), completions (830) and touchdown passes (86).

“You’re so used to playing,” he said. “You’re so used to being that guy. When you come to the NFL, you’re not necessarily thought of as a backup because you’re still vital to the team, but it’s hard practicing all week and not getting out there on Sunday. As a competitor, that’s what you want to do. You want to get out there and play.”

Boykin’s minimum salary of $450,000, the similarity of his game to Wilson’s and his potential as a development prospect made him attractive to the Seahawks. He did enough in the preseason — 37-of-71 for 418 yards with one touchdown, one interception, a 68.9 passer rating and 15 rushes for 71 yards — to convince the Seahawks not to sign a veteran backup.

“I’ve made huge strides learning this offense,” Boykin said. “I’m starting to learn more about protection, more about defenses. It’s been great.

“One of the things I pride myself on most is just to try to be the best guy I can be on and off the field.”

Boykin’s biggest fans remain the family of Abby Faber, the 7-year-old with cerebral palsy who first met Boykin during the pregame coin toss of the Iowa State-TCU game a year ago. Abby’s father, Steve, sent Boykin a congratulatory text after Boykin’s debut against the 49ers. Boykin later talked to Abby on the phone.

Boykin said their chance meeting in 2015 — which became public only because Star-Telegram reporter Paul Moseley took their photo and overheard Boykin ask her, “What’s your name?” — has created a lasting relationship.

“When it happened, nobody was looking for attention. It was nothing like that,” Boykin said. “It was just one of those moments. It just happened to happen, and it was a good thing.”