Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll are fighting over wristbands

Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Russell Wilson and his former coach are jawing over accessories

One of the underlying storylines to the entire 2022 NFL season has been the simmering tension in Seattle boiling over, with Seahawks players, and coaches, past and present airing their grievances regarding a certain former quarterback.

That discussion has taken a strange turn.

Geno Smith is, by almost any measure, playing at an elite level this season. He currently ranks sixth among qualified passers with an Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt of 7.09. Smith ranks fourth in the NFL with a QBR of 68.0. He leads the NFL in Completion Percentage Over Expectation, with a mark of 8.2, and is eighth in Expected Points Added per Dropback.

Asked about Smith’s success this year, head coach Pete Carroll offered an interesting explanation, with a detour into the past.

Wristbands.

“If you notice, Geno’s going off the wristband, and that’s a big help,” Carroll said. “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.”

Carroll did not indicate who he was referring to by name, but the inference was obvious. So much so that Wilson was asked about the quote from his former head coach at Denver Broncos’ practice on Thursday, and the quarterback was ready with a jab of his own:

The war of words between Seattle players, and coaches, shows no signs of slowing down. Right now we are talking about accessories, and we can only wonder what the next chapter will be in this story.

Perhaps Carroll will start talking about sandwiches, or in-flight exercising.