INDIANAPOLIS — Russell Wilson has been busy with Ciara at the Grammys and running the bases with his singer-girlfriend’s son at empty Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, across the country in Indiana, the legacy of the Seattle Seahawks’ franchise quarterback is obvious. Just listen to the coaches and collegians across the country at the NFL combine.
The name “Russell Wilson” has been a comparison of honor and admiration here — and, in the case of Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams, a “blessing.”
First, it’s been because of the combine’s latest fad: assessing hand size. New 49ers coach Chip Kelly met away from the combine’s stadium site on Thursday with beat writers from San Francisco. Kelly went on and on about one of the hottest (and weirdest) topics at this combine: hand size.
In doing so, Kelly went on and on about Wilson.
Kelly told the Niners’ beat writers the importance of hand size is “huge” for quarterbacks.
“You better have big hands,” Kelly said, according to The Sacramento Bee. “Russell Wilson is 5-101/2 — but he’s got 101/4(-inch) hands. You better have a big paw to manipulate the football.”
Then there are Wilson’s intangibles. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll spent part of Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium reciting all the qualities he saw in Wilson at this combine four years ago. He and general manager John Schneider made Wilson Seattle’s third-round draft choice in 2012, when most thought he was too short. He became the Seahawks’ starting quarterback from day one of his career, and ended up winning more games in his first three seasons than any NFL quarterback had.
“We thought had an extraordinary list of characteristics that would allow him to be a great player, some that no other player in the draft have, that few players ever have: the savvy, the escapeability, the creativity, the great work ethic,” Carroll said. “Mix all of those things together, he’s a marvelous talent.
“He just came in a different package.”
Some of this year’s college quarterbacks, four years, two Super Bowls and a Seahawks league title removed from when Wilson was going through this draft process, revere Wilson almost as much as Carroll — and Ciara — do.
“Most definitely,” Jacoby Brissett said, his voice rising.
Brissett is like Wilson: A North Carolina State quarterback who transferred to play a final college season and is now getting overlooked beneath the top tier of QBs at the combine. He’s been seeking advice from Wilson on what awaits him.
“He has a camp there (in Raleigh, the Russell Wilson Passing Academy) and he comes through a couple times a summer,” Brissett said of NC State’s home city. “I got to help work out his camp two times and be around him for a while.
“He just said it’s a business, and you just have to work at it,” said Brissett, who transferred from Florida to NC State for last season when the Gators chose Jeff Driskel over him as their quarterback. “It’s a job that you never fully understand or fully know it, you won’t have fully have all the answers to. So you have to work.
“I mean, you watch his game and it’s evident that’s all he does is work. He tries to perfect his craft.”
Adams has also done a camp with Wilson. The former Eastern Washington Eagle is more than flattered people are comparing him to the Seahawks’ $87.6 million franchise quarterback.
Adams shredded Washington with 475 yards and seven touchdowns in the Huskies’ 2014 home opener. He transferred to Oregon for last season then wondrously ran around the backfield extending plays for the Ducks, Wilson style.
Adams is 5-feet-11. So the Wilson comparisons keep coming.
“I think that’s a blessing,” Adams said. “I’m blessed to be compared to Russell Wilson, a great quarterback like that.
“I’ve always rooted for him. I did a quarterback camp with him,” Adams said. “Drew Brees too; he’s been getting it done for a long time.”
I don’t think too much about being a short quarterback. You find a window. It’s about your football IQ, I think. If you’re prepared well, I think you’re going to do well. This is nothing against Tom Brady or Brock Osweiler, but I see those guys get their balls batted down a lot.
“So it’s not about being short—you get your balls batted down if you’re tall or short—it’s about getting the ball out on time, having the right pocket, stuff like that.”
Dak Prescott from Mississippi State is another quarterback here aspiring to be Wilson. Prescott sees the Seahawks’ star as more than just a Super Bowl winner, Seattle’s franchise cornerstone and Ciara’s beau on their glitzy L.A. tour.
He sees Wilson as an NFL trail blazer.
“(Guys like) Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, they’ve all opened the door for the mobile quarterbacks,” Prescott said, extending No. 3’s shadow at this NFL combine. “Guys who are making throws from under center, in the pocket, (are) doing the things they need to within the pocket, but as well stretching the defense and using their mobility to really hurt the defense.”
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