The unfaithful following of Russell Wilson
It’s strange watching those members of the Seattle media who were devoted zealots of Wilson now try and position themselves at the front of parade celebrating his decline
For one half, he looked like Russell Wilson.
Denver’s quarterback completed his first 10 passes on Monday in Los Angeles, including a two-play sequence in the first quarter that was vintage Russ. On third-and-13 from his own 24, Wilson held the ball and held the ball and then moved to his right while continuing to look downfield to find Jerry Jeudy for a 37-yard gain. The very next play, Wilson stepped up and into a 39-yard throw to tight end Greg Dulcich for a touchdown and a 10-0 lead.
It got worse from there. Much worse and while I’m not going to pretend this was some horrific disappointment to me that Wilson completed only five of his final 18 passes, I am going to guess that his declining performance over the course of the game has more than a little bit to do with the shoulder injury he suffered.
Nobody in Seattle wants to hear about that, though, and I don’t blame them. Wilson decided he wanted out. He thought he deserved better than what the Seahawks and more specifically Pete Carroll had given him, and six games into this season that was supposed to be his coming-out-party, his new team has a worse record than his old team and the Broncos have lost three of the four games they’ve played in prime time. The schadenfreude has been extraordinary if you’re into that sort of thing, and I absolutely am.
Still, it’s strange watching those members of the Seattle media who were the most devoted zealots of Wilson now position themselves at the forefront of the crowd celebrating his decline. You know who they are. The ones who treated any discussions of Wilson’s limitations as if heresy against the church they had established. The people who flagged even the most oblique criticism of Wilson on Twitter, and questioned the agendas of reporters who documented the tension that existed within Seattle’s locker room in 2016 and 2017.