Seahawks let Russell Wilson call plays in final preseason game

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Since Russell Wilson wasn’t playing in the Seahawks’ final preseason game against the Oakland Raiders last week, head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer gave him a different task for the night.

Wilson took over the play-calling duties from Schottenheimer for a couple of series in the second quarter and called the team to a touchdown drive and a three-and-out in his two drives in charge.

“I was ready, I was thinking, ‘let’s go.’ He told me in the second quarter at some point I could call plays,” Wilson said on Thursday.

Wilson called a deep ball to undrafted rookie Jazz Ferguson that went for a 41-yard completion from Geno Smith. Three plays later, Smith hit tight end Jacob Hollister for an 11-yard touchdown as Wilson ran on the field to celebrate the drive. Wilson said it was a new experience hearing the back and forth of the entire coaching staff running through the headsets as he was trying to call plays.

“The cool part is listening to the coaches,” he said. “I just have my headset on, so me and Schotty are usually talking, or I’m talking to him on the sideline or whatever that may be. But to hear all the other coaches talking and communicating on the headsets and all that, and me being able to say, “hey we’re going to do this here,” or “we’re going to look for Jazz here. Just communicate what we’re looking for, it was fun, it was a cool experience. To throw a touchdown on my first OC experience was pretty cool, so it was awesome.”

The second drive didn’t go quite as well as Smith was sacked and knocked out of the game with a minor knee injury. Schottenheimer said Wilson handled the experience calling plays well but quickly joked that Wilson’s time with the play sheet may not have been all roses just because they got a touchdown out of it.

“If you ask him, he did great. I like to say, ‘yeah, you had a touchdown pass, but you also got Geno [Smith] knocked out of the game.’ So, it’s not that easy of a thing to do,” Schottenheimer said with a laugh.

“He did a good job and that shows you where he’s growing, and how much more comfortable he is now. It was fun to see him compete in that realm.”

Wilson’s play-calling will be relegated to changing plays in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage instead of with a play sheet in his hand now that the regular season is set to get underway this weekend.