ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Russell Wilson hasn’t been a member of the Seattle Seahawks for over six months, yet Pete Carroll can’t stop bringing his former quarterback into the conversation.
This week’s edition sparked wristband-gate.
“If you notice, Geno [Smith’s] going off the wristband, and that’s a big help,” Carroll said on Seattle Sports 760AM on Monday. “It’s smoothed things out, sped things up, cleaned things up. And that’s part of it, too. We never did that before. There was resistance to that, so we didn’t do that before.”
Before this season, Wilson had started all but three games for Carroll and the Seahawks over the past decade. While Carroll didn’t specifically name Wilson as the one that resisted the wristband in the past, it’s not difficult to draw the connection.
The wristband Carroll is referring to is one that some quarterbacks wear that has play calls on it to help the offense operate. Throughout much of Wilson’s career, he hasn’t wore one.
On Wednesday, during his media availability in Denver, Wilson was asked about his preference to not wear a wristband.
“Come to find out? What do you mean,” Wilson said, questioning the origin of the question, before being told about Carroll’s comments.
“I don’t know exactly what he said, but I think, you know, won a lot of games there without one on the wrist. I didn’t know winning or losing mattered if you wore a wristband or not,” Wilson shot back. “But, I think, do whatever it takes to make sure that we’re rolling and moving and everything else. A few times I’ve definitely wore a wristband depending on the game plan and what we have called and all of that stuff. But, yeah.”
The kicker to all of it is not only did Wilson wear a wristband in the Broncos’ most recent game against the Jaguars—a game in which Denver won—but less than an hour after his comments on Wednesday, No. 3 was on the practice field donning a wristband on his left arm.
On Oct. 30 against the Jaguars, Wilson threw for 252 yards and led a go-ahead fourth-quarter touchdown drive all while wearing a wristband. Apparently Wilson didn’t resist the wristband in Week 8, and it appears he’s not resisting the wristband moving forward.
