Nobody who ever saw Russell Wilson play in college would have been all that shocked to later hear that he was a starting quarterback in the NFL.
But it’s unlikely that even many of those believers had any inkling that the former Wisconsin and N.C. State star’s turn would come so quickly.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made it official on Sunday, ushering in the Wilson era in the Pacific Northwest by naming the rookie to be his team’s Week 1 starter at Arizona on Sept. 9.
Wilson got the nod over Matt Flynn, the former Green Bay backup who signed a big contract with the Seahawks in the offseason.
There was just no denying Wilson’s magic.
“It’s been a very exciting competition that has gone on, and Russell has taken full advantage of his opportunities and has done everything that we have asked for on the field and more than what you guys could know off the field in meeting rooms and with our players and how he’s represented,” Carroll said during Sunday night’s conference call with reporters.
“He’s earned this job. It was a legitimate competition as we said from the beginning, and, with the opportunity he’s taken advantage of, he deserves to start.”
Wilson, a 5-foot-11 third-round pick who played four seasons at N.C. State before doing a fifth at Wisconsin, has been the team’s unmistakable star during the preseason.
After coming off the bench in relief of Flynn in wins over Tennessee and Denver, he shined brilliantly again in his first start, passing for 185 yards and two downs without an interception. Wilson also rushed for 58 more yards in this past weekend’s lopsided win over Kansas City to cement his place in the starting lineup.
“He is so prepared,” Carroll said. “He doesn’t seem like a first-year player. He seems like he’s been around. He gets it, he understands and he is a tremendous leader in that way.”
Carroll’s decision was still a gutsy one, given that the team had inked Flynn to a three-year, $26 million deal in the offseason, $10 million of which is guaranteed.
But there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Flynn lacked Wilson’s mojo.
Wilson will become the fifth rookie set to start at quarterback in Week 1, joining Ryan Tannehill (Miami), Brandon Weeden (Cleveland), Andrew Luck (Indianapolis) and Robert Griffin III (Washington). It will mark the first year that the league has seen more than two rookie quarterbacks start Week 1 since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
