Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll: Russell Wilson 'way, way ahead of schedule'

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 11/9/21

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll hasn't officially named quarterback Russell Wilson the starter for the team's Week 10 game against the Green Bay Packers yet, but all indications are pointing to the return of the reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year award winner on Sunday.

"This is a remarkable story of recovery, and really of a guy setting the intent that he was going to do this and pull off, and he's way, way ahead of schedule," Carroll said on Monday, per Seahawks.com reporter John Boyle. "We just came off the practice field, and he threw the ball all over the place. He did really well for the first time out in a limited amount of plays. Everything about it -- we knew that Russ was going to go for it; we didn't know if his body could respond, but it did. His team that worked with him and helped him throughout did a remarkable job. So we'll just go one day at a time and see how it goes. I know he's thrilled to be back, everybody's excited to see him back out here. It's an amazing accomplishment to be back. Just throwing like he just did on the practice field is a great achievement."

Wilson has been out since he suffered his injury on Oct. 7, and it was originally believed that he could be sidelined for up to six weeks.

"Knowing Russ, this was the week that I was thinking, if he could pull off something miraculous, then this would be the week he could play," Carroll said when asked if he thought this quick of a comeback was realistic. "Just judging from the six- to eight-week thing with broken bones that everybody's aware of, that's kind of how you could look at it on one end of it. But we thought, what could be the earliest he could possibly do it, could he possibly pull it off? And he did. Just to make it to practice today, he looked great out there today, that's an enormous accomplishment. That was the kind of the hopes that if he could pull off something special that it might happen this week. That's kind of what we're thinking. He was ready to go yesterday. He would have wanted to play yesterday if he was able to."

Prior to last month, Wilson hadn't missed a single game over his nine-plus NFL seasons. In five games this season, Wilson has a 72% completion percentage and thrown for 1,196 passing yards with 10 touchdowns against only one interception.

Wilson has also added 17 carries for 68 yards and one touchdown for the 3-5 Seahawks. Seattle will face the Packers on the road at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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