Are you prepared?

Longevity in the NFL is something many players hope for but in the real world most players only last a couple of years. Tom Brady is certainly the exception. Russell Wilson is too for that matter.

Although Wilson has had injuries in past seasons he has yet to miss a start for the Seattle Seahawks in a regular or post season game. That will all come to a screeching halt on Sunday as Wilson suffered an injury to the middle finger on his throwing hand. He ruptured a tendon in that finger after his hand contacted Ram defensive lineman Aaron Donald’s hand on Thursday night in Seattle.

Early prognosis says that Wilson will be out 4-8 weeks but he may be back sooner as Wilson has a tendency to bounce back quicker than most athletes. We’ll see.

Journeyman QB Geno Smith will be the new Seahawk starter on Sunday. Smith has been with the Seahawks since 2019. He is a year younger than Wilson and was a starter for the New York Jets. So he has experience and is a pretty good athlete.

Smith has experience as a QB and should know the offense or at least the playbook well as a backup. The one thing he doesn’t usually get are reps during practice. Of course, he will get those all-important reps this week as the new Seahawk starting QB.

With the salary cap NFL teams like to use inexpensive guys as their team’s backups. A team can’t afford to keep multi-million dollar subs that may not get to play until the latter stages of a blowout victory. Besides there aren’t a lot of blowout victories in the NFL.

NFL teams will draft high profile QBs with the hope of making them the starter as soon as possible. When that happens, the former starter usually becomes trading material. The team will then need to find an inexpensive backup QB. It’s a business folks and like it or not guys like Gardner Minshew are never going be the answer as NFL QBs. Just love what he accomplished at WSU and know that he will retire from the NFL with a lot of money in his back pocket.

Seahawk fans have been spoiled with Russell Wilson’s ability to stay healthy. Honestly, when Wilson had a leg injury a few seasons back it might have been in his best interest to take a couple of weeks to mend. His mobility was lacking and he took a beating during those following games. All of those hits take a toll.

But Wilson prides himself on being in great shape with super leadership. He is definitely a guy that leads by example. That is why it will be interesting to see how quick he can bounce back and start for the Seahawks. It most likely would be a boost to the team if the turnaround time is only three games. At 2-3 the Seahawks need to gets some wins and soon. You certainly hope Geno Smith can make that happen.

Positions like QB are unique because those guys don’t sit out a series or two and let the backup take over. In the NFL you have to trust the guy you call your starter and hope for the best. A coach has to support that guy even when he has a bad game. You can give a receiver a rest or a running back or a lineman now and then, and move defensive players in and out of the game but the QB doesn’t come out unless he’s hurt.

It’s important for the rest of the team to make sure the most valuable guy that calls the signals is standing upright and not under a pile of 300 pound defensive hulks.

Now that Russell Wilson is on the sidelines mending it is important that every Seahawk player steps up. Geno Smith needs to be protected just as much as Russell Wilson. Since he will be getting all the reps this week he should be prepared for the next game.