RENTON — The time has arrived for Luke Willson to step up to the plate.
Again.
For the second straight season the Seattle Seahawks tight end has been thrust to the forefront after the man ahead of him in the depth chart went down injured.
Willson, a third-year pro, inherits Seattle’s No. 1 tight end position following the season-ending knee injury suffered by Jimmy Graham in this past Sunday’s 39-30 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But the expanded role is nothing new for the 2013 fifth-round draft pick out of Rice, who went through the exact same scenario last season when Seattle’s starting tight end, Zach Miller, was lost for the season because of an ankle injury. Therefore, Willson is ready to meet the challenge.
“It’s nothing I haven’t been through before and I’m ready to roll,” Willson said.
“Just experience helps,” Willson added. “Just being through it. We had some wild games last year, especially down the stretch. I feel pretty comfortable. I felt comfortable this entire year. Nothing too crazy to talk about or anything big changing coming up for me. I’m just doing my thing.”
Willson became Seattle’s primary tight end last season after Miller underwent ankle surgery during the Week 4 bye. Willson finished the season with 22 receptions for 362 yards and three touchdowns, including a memorable 139-yard, two-TD performance in the Seahawks’ 35-6 victory over Arizona in the season’s penultimate week.
This season, following the offseason acquisition of Graham, Willson saw his role change as he became more of a blocking tight end and Graham became the primary receiving tight end. Through 11 games Willson has just 12 catches for 152 yards and one touchdown. He’ll be asked to do more in the passing game now that Graham is unavailable.
“I have tons of confidence in Luke,” Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said. “We really ask him to do a lot of things. We’ve asked him to play the U position when he first got here, which is basically more of the running the routes and all different kinds of routes in the route tree, to moving him over to the Y position where he’s used a lot more in the blocking. He’s kind of at the point of attack more in the run game. You ask him to do different routes there at that Y position, so he’s really just become a really well-rounded tight end in terms of we really can count on him to do just about anything that we ask him to do and know that he’s going to do it pretty well.”
The Seahawks say the offense won’t change now that Graham is gone for the season, though Willson acknowledges it will be difficult to replicate what Graham, a three-time Pro Bowler, brings to the passing attack.
“I think there’s a mix,” Willson responded when asked whether Graham’s plays will become his, or whether Seattle’s play calling will change. “There’s some stuff, obviously Jimmy is an incredible talent that we may move away from, to be honest.”
But Seattle sent a message in the game against Pittsburgh. On the play immediately following Graham’s injuries the Seahawks threw to Willson for a 12-yard gain.
“I think (the immediate pass to Willson sent) a lot of subtle messages,” Bevell said. “One, to tell Luke that we have confidence in him. There’s no question that we believe in him. He’s been here, he’s played at a high level for us, and he is appreciated. Two, that it’s not just going to be, ‘OK, that’s dead now and that’s not going to be part of their offense.’ So there’s all kinds of messages that you can send with that.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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