Play Pete, Do You Sit or Start Russell

[AgentDib]

This is a great topic and a tough call. It's an easy decision to play him if we think that the risk of further injury is low and that he can play well despite the injury. However, one of our issues in the Rams game was that limited Russ was not nearly as effective as we are used to. Also, considering how positive he is it's probably tough to get a honest evaluation of his status.

I'd probably sit him if he's at less than 75%. We would still have a decent shot with Boykin and even if we lose it's not the end of the world. When you factor in the injuries we have started out with I could live with being 2-2 coming out of the bye if everybody's healthy.

 

[Uncle Si]

I sit him and hope the defense and running game can carry you to a win. Gives Russ basically 3 weeks before his next start, hopefully allowing both his ankle and knee to fully heal or come very close.

Hard to argue with this.

Not that hard to argue with:

3-1 and two weeks to heal

2-2 with three weeks to heal

 

[TwistedHusky]

I was in favor of sitting him vs the Rams and 49ers, so the question to ask is how the high ankle sprain is healing.

The other side is now injured, so it is going to be hard to compensate for injury by shifting weight to the non-injured leg. Apparently, there is no non-injured leg.

Here is the question: Can Wilson run? Is he mobile? Can he throw accurately on the run?

Because an immobile Wilson is just a target and another potential injury. If that is the case, sit him.

It was, frankly, tremendously stupid to even let him play against the Rams. We still lost, he lost some opportunity for healing and it was by the grace of God that we did not leave that place with him injured worse.

We will need a healthy Wilson for the stretch run, just to even make the playoffs.

It makes no sense to be worried about losing 1 game when having him at 60% for 6+ more games is going to hurt us far worse. More concerning, is that we have played a total of 3 teams, all of which are bad, and every other week we seem to be dealing with a new injury to Wilson. Let's hope that is the result of a small sample size and not a trend.

 

[LeftHandSmoke]

No doc either but ideally we get back to where RW is a wicked weapon. If sitting him for almost 3 weeks to rehab/heal makes things a lot better than practicing and playing, then for the sake of the franchise it just seems like an easy call to make almost no matter the team up next.

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

I sit him and hope the defense and running game can carry you to a win. Gives Russ basically 3 weeks before his next start, hopefully allowing both his ankle and knee to fully heal or come very close.

Hard to argue with this.

Not that hard to argue with:

3-1 and two weeks to heal

2-2 with three weeks to heal

Except you are ignoring the most important possibility....

2-2 or even 3-1 and No Russell or the rest of the season and a 9-7 finish or worse. You argument is invalid without this factored as a possibility. :roll:

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I sit him and hope the defense and running game can carry you to a win. Gives Russ basically 3 weeks before his next start, hopefully allowing both his ankle and knee to fully heal or come very close.

Hard to argue with this.

Not that hard to argue with:

3-1 and two weeks to heal

2-2 with three weeks to heal

Probably right, but not guaranteed. Lots of other scenarios possible.

3-1 defense spanks the Jets terrible offense and Boykin does just enough to win. Hell, even if Russell plays at 50% the Jets have a good chance at beating us. It's not like we're amazing at east coast 10:00am starts.

One thing is for certain though if you sit Russell, he has no chance to get hit again by another nasty front.

 

[xgeoff]

Things I would need to know to answer this question. If he has the least variety of MCL sprain, what danger is there to further injury? If it's no greater than if he didn't have it, I play him, if it increases his chance, I sit him.

This echoes my thoughts. If there is a good chance of Russell exacerbating this injury, I have him sit. The big picture is more important. If you can slap a brace on him and have him play with a reasonable expectation that he won't injure it further, by all means play him.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

Would be a much easier decision to make if we had a proper backup and not an UDFA rookie project.

 

[JSeahawks]

I sit him and hope the defense and running game can carry you to a win. Gives Russ basically 3 weeks before his next start, hopefully allowing both his ankle and knee to fully heal or come very close.

Hard to argue with this.

Not that hard to argue with:

3-1 and two weeks to heal

2-2 with three weeks to heal

Probably right, but not guaranteed. Lots of other scenarios possible.

3-1 defense spanks the Jets terrible offense and Boykin does just enough to win. Hell, even if Russell plays at 50% the Jets have a good chance at beating us. It's not like we're amazing at east coast 10:00am starts.

One thing is for certain though if you sit Russell, he has no chance to get hit again by another nasty front.

But he could slip in the shower and break his neck.

He's paid to play football, if he can he should.

 

[Uncle Si]

I sit him and hope the defense and running game can carry you to a win. Gives Russ basically 3 weeks before his next start, hopefully allowing both his ankle and knee to fully heal or come very close.

Hard to argue with this.

Not that hard to argue with:

3-1 and two weeks to heal

2-2 with three weeks to heal

Except you are ignoring the most important possibility....

2-2 or even 3-1 and No Russell or the rest of the season and a 9-7 finish or worse. You argument is invalid without this factored as a possibility. :roll:

Nice eyeroll...

My argument is as valid as all others. None are factoring in all possibilities now are they? He said it was hard to argue. I suggested it's really not and gave him one of many, many possible outcomes.

We sit him and still win!!

We play him, we win, he's fine!!

We sit him, we lose, he's fine!!

We play him, we lose, he's hurt!!

We play him, we lose, he's fine!!

We play him, we win, he's hurt!!

We play him, we win, we go 12-4!!

We sit him, we lose, he's fine, we still go 9-7!!

etc., etc.

Which of these potential outcomes has everyone factored in?

 

[dogorama]

Things I would need to know to answer this question. If he has the least variety of MCL sprain, what danger is there to further injury? If it's no greater than if he didn't have it, I play him, if it increases his chance, I sit him.

:ditto:

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

...Nice eyeroll...

My argument is as valid as all others. None are factoring in all possibilities now are they? He said it was hard to argue. I suggested it's really not and gave him one of many, many possible outcomes.

We sit him and still win!!

We play him, we win, he's fine!!

We sit him, we lose, he's fine!!

We play him, we lose, he's hurt!!

We play him, we lose, he's fine!!

We play him, we win, he's hurt!!

We play him, we win, we go 12-4!!

We sit him, we lose, he's fine, we still go 9-7!!

etc., etc.

Which of these potential outcomes has everyone factored in?

I'm just saying that Russell being hurt worse is the most important reason to consider sitting him. If there is any chance of a torn MCL, I say sit him. Its just not that crucial a game.

If you find "eyeroll" smilies that offensive, perhaps your skin is too thin?

 

[volsunghawk]

Start him. Every single game is an injury risk, so this thinking that he will magically heal up and then be solid the rest of the season is silly. He could get injured in the Jets game and end up on IR. Or he could get injured the week we come back from the bye and end up on IR.

If he can play, he's our leader.

 

[BlueTalon]

Would be a much easier decision to make if we had a proper backup and not an UDFA rookie project.

It wouldn't, really. We'd still be having exactly this same discussion if Tarvaris was still on the roster.

My vote is to sit Russ. Give Boykin the practice reps for the week and the game on Sunday. This is about more than just this week's game, or even just this season. We want Russ at optimal health, and the experience Boyken gets could prove to be invaluable sometime later.

 

[Hasselbeck]

He's paid to play football, if he can he should.

He's also paid a lot of money because he's the most important player on this team. The NFL season is a marathon not a sprint. I think this Jets game was difficult to win with a 100% healthy Wilson, much less one with two busted legs.

We saw how ugly this offense was with a hobbled Wilson against LA. The Jets have as potent a defensive line and a vastly better offense (assuming Fitz doesn't go full Jeff George again).

I just think the risk far outweighs the reward here. Play Boykin and hope he pulls a Brissett.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

But he could slip in the shower and break his neck.

He's paid to play football, if he can he should.

I just don't think it's that cut and dry.

We need Russell for the whole season, sitting him against an AFC team for a difficult east coast early start game isn't the worst idea.

Home game against the Cardinals? Different story.

 

[timmat]

Until I hear a Dr. or team rep like Pete come out and straight up say something to the effect of "the results of the MRI were clear and show no damage to the...", I'd sit him. There has been lots of positive statements on his knee, and Pete was sticking to the sprain diagnosis that we suspected after the game. But I still haven't heard the "clean bill of health" confirmation I was hoping would come from the MRI analysis.

This is a very unique situation where missing one AFC game buys you 3 weeks of recovery time. Although I don't think there's any way he misses the game, I wish they would keep him out. If the staff leaves it to a player like Wilson, he'll play for sure. I hope the organization steps in a bit more on this one.

Watching that knee brace get slapped on him yesterday gave me flashbacks of the brace RGIII wore. RW and RGIII seem to be cut from completely different stock (good for us), but that was one of the first things I thought of.

 

[theENGLISHseahawk]

Would be a much easier decision to make if we had a proper backup and not an UDFA rookie project.

It wouldn't, really. We'd still be having exactly this same discussion if Tarvaris was still on the roster.

My vote is to sit Russ. Give Boykin the practice reps for the week and the game on Sunday. This is about more than just this week's game, or even just this season. We want Russ at optimal health, and the experience Boyken gets could prove to be invaluable sometime later.

We'd still be discussing it but of course it'd be a much easier decision. Surely you appreciate the angle of an experienced backup with a proper understanding of a NFL game vs an UDFA rookie?

 

[PlinytheCenter]

Sit him.

Ryan Fitzpatrick isn't going to be putting up a whole lot of points; we don't need to out-shoot him. Against the Jets, you're going to want someone who can protect himself with his legs, and that's not Russ this week. And like Sgt. said, the NFC isn't exactly a footrace right now.

If we lose, it's an AFC game, which doesn't count as much in a postseason tiebreaker. If there's ever a time to sit him, it's the Jets game.

Totally agree. Sit him, at least for this week. Give him a chance to rehab a bit. Boykin was serviceable against the Niners; he just has to keep the boneheaded ints under control, run out of trouble, and let Michael & Rawls do their thing. The defense will hopefully keep this a low scoring affair. Eek out a win here and move on.

 

[Largent80]

Was listening to Carroll this morning and he stated that the ankle sprain is pretty much a non issue that RW feels no pain from it.

He also said that RW iced his knee several times during the evening and was completely free of pain this morning.