Here’s some Seahawks quotes out of the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Friday:
QB RUSSELL WILSON
Seahawks offensive coordinator Darell Bevell said earlier in the week that Wilson is passing out of the pocket better as well as he ever has. Here’s Wilson’s response to that:
“I think it’s just getting more and more comfortable as the years go on. You just continue to trust your reads, continue to trust your progression and just hang in there longer, know you’re going to take some hits every once in a while, but getting the ball to the right guy at the right time. That’s the goal, just giving the guy a chance to make the play, and I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that so far.”
Wilson has been sacked a league-high 12 times so far this season. His take on why that’s happened:
“The first game [against St Louis] we had a few extra ones and they did a good job on us. I think a couple times they’ve gotten me just when I’m getting away, right at the line of scrimmage. Hopefully those will break open, we’ve had a few where they’ve broken open. We just have to continue to be strong up front, get the ball out on time on my part and continue to try and deliver. This may sound crazy, but sometimes a sack isn’t the end of the world. Sometimes something’s not there, so you move onto the next down and continue to play football and as much as I can throw the ball away. That’s what I try to do, salvage the play and move onto the next.”
DE CLIFF AVRIL
The Seahawks play the Detroit Lions on Monday, the team Avril played for the first five seasons of his NFL career. In his rookie season in 2008 the Lions went 0-16. Avril had some chuckles when asked what he learned from experiencing that winless season?
“What do you learn? You learn you don’t want to experience that again or you’re going to get fired. I was a rookie, just trying to find my way, trying to just get on the field and make plays, trying not to be the reason why.”
Avril played with the Lions when they beat Seattle in 2012, meaning he was on the other side during the famous Transformers incident, when Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman changed his Twitter handle to Optimus Prime in response to facing Lions receiver Calvin Johnson, whose nickname is Megatron. Avril has a different perspective of Sherman now that they’re teammates:
“[Sherman is] completely different from what everybody else, if you don’t know him, would portray him to be. Sherm is awesome, he’s very supportive in anything you want to do as far as getting him to your functions and different things like that. He’s an awesome teammate, me and him clown around every day. He’s just a great all-around dude, but sometimes people might think differently of him because of some of the things he’s done in the media, I guess. Very smart guy, very calculated.”
FS EARL THOMAS
Oftentimes a team’s receivers and defensive backs get intense when practicing against one another every day. Former Seattle receiver Golden Tate is making his return Monday with the Lions, and Thomas was asked if Tate played a substantial role in the intensity.
“Tate was more of a goofy guy. He wasn’t really a Doug Baldwin.”
What did Thomas have to say about last week’s 26-0 victory over Chicago, in which he he wasn’t credited with a single defensive statistic?
“Last game was boring. It was a boring game, but it was one of the best games I played in my career. That’s the moral of the story.”
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