When Russell Wilson rushed back into the lineup after missing just three games due to surgery on his mangled middle finger on his throwing hand, he said that he felt “pretty dang close” to 100 percent.
In his first game back against the Green Bay Packers, Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks were shutout for the first time in his 10-year career with Wilson completing just 20-of-40 passes for 161 yards with two interceptions.
In his first three games back from the injury, Wilson completed just 55.7 percent of his passes for an average of 205 yards per game with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The Seahawks lost all three games.
Wilson said Thursday that, in retrospect, he wasn’t actually 100 percent. However, he still felt like he could play through the injury.
“Was I 100 percent, definitely not,” Wilson said. “But at the same time, you go out there and learn as much as you can learn, play as hard as you can, and try and help us win, but unfortunately it didn’t go that way.”
Wilson has prided himself through his career in not even missing practices, let alone games. The three-game stretch he missed in October due to a mallet finger injury to his throwing hand were the first games missed of his professional career. He played through knee and ankle injuries in 2016 that threatened to keep him out of the lineup.
Wilson said it took six weeks from the surgery before he actually started feeling closer to normal.
“I would say that I really felt good at the sixth week maybe, I felt really good coming back,” Wilson said. “I’m not sure exactly the date or the games, but I was feeling really great. Then over the past several games, the ball is coming out of my hands great, I feel really good, and I’m really confident.”
Wilson has continued to have errant throws in recent weeks. The most obvious example from recent games was a badly under-thrown ball to D.K. Metcalf in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams as Metcalf had run clean by Jalen Ramsey for what could have been a tying touchdown.
Wilson and the Seahawks are going to post a losing season for the first time in his 10 years as quarterback in Seattle. The injury to his finger unquestionably has played a part in his struggles this season. However, the Seahawks were on their way to 3-5 even before Wilson’s injury in the first meeting against the Rams. He’s been one of the league’s worst quarterbacks on third down all season long, even before the injury in October. For the first time since his rookie season, Wilson is getting some legitimate criticism for his play.
Nevertheless, Wilson says he’s not going to stop trying to get things back on track.
“My mind is not wavering,” Wilson said. “Everyone wants to talk about this or that, but I’m not going to let it waver my mind, mindset, and what I know I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it, and how I can go about my business.”
