Was Wilson ever really considered for the role of Qb1? Credit: Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

Before I start, I have to preface this with the fact that it is my opinion. I can’t get anyone with the Seahawks to comment on the record, though at the same time no one dissuaded me from writing this when I made my inquiries. So take this for what it’s worth. It’s my opinion, and I’m not presenting this as fact.

I don’t believe that Russell Wilson was ever in consideration to be the week 1 starter. I did at the start of camp, but my opinion has changed. The way the competition has progressed in camp suggests that the battle was really between Flynn and Jackson to be the starter, and between the loser of that battle and Wilson to be the backup.

For starters, Wilson hasn’t had a rep with the first team since day 6 of camp, August 3rd. Since then he’s have 4 days with the 3rd unit, and the rest have been with the 2nd unit. With off days scheduled today and tomorrow, even if Wilson gets the first team reps on Tuesday (which is unlikely), it will have been almost 3 weeks since he last rep with the starters. That isn’t a good way to see if he’s ready to take on that role.

Contrast that with Tarvaris Jackson, who appears to be the odd man out in this competition and is currently being shopped for a trade. Jackson has had 4 days in that same time period where he worked with the 1st unit offense. If Wilson was really in a competition with a chance at being the week 1 starter, doesn’t the discrepancy there seem very odd?

August 18 2012; Denver, CO, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Flynn (15) in the second quarter of a preseason game against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

Instead, consider that the competition was, in fact, as I proposed above with Wilson only competing for the job as the backup. In that case, Wilson doesn’t need reps with the 1s, but instead needs as many reps with 2nd unit as he could get, and that has been what has happened.

Also consider the preseason game rotation. If Wilson was going to get a shot with the first unit offense, it needed to happen in yesterday’s game against the Broncos. The competition must be over by the third preseason game, otherwise the week 1 gameplan wont be in place on time. Week 3 is the “dress rehearsal” game, and week 4 is about resting the starters and getting them healthy. Week 4′s main task is to get the players on the “bubble” as many reps as possible so the final roster decisions can be made. Failure to use those 2 weeks of the preseason properly could really hurt the Seahawks this year.

There really wasn’t any reason not to start Wilson yesterday if the coaching staff wanted to see him with the rest of the starters. The fact that they didn’t tells me that they were more interested in getting Flynn more reps to help him prepare for week 1, than they were interested in truly evaluating Wilson. As I said in the paragraph above, continuing this competition into next week hurts the team as a whole. If they were going to give Wilson a shot, it needed to be yesterday. The team simply chose not to.

Jan. 1, 2012; Glendale, AZ, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback (7) Tarvaris Jackson throws a pass against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Seahawks 23-20 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

So why have the “3-way” competition at all? Because there wasn’t time to have 2 separate competitions. There would be no way to evaluate Wilson properly with him playing only with the 3rd unit. His turn to compete for the backup job would have had to wait for either Flynn or Jackson to win to starter’s job.

Back in the offseason program, there was no reason to think that Jackson and Flynn were going to be pretty equal, and that the competition wasn’t going to be a quick one. It looked very much like we were going to get to this point in the preseason and then Carroll was going to have to make a choice between Jackson and Flynn. That would have left just the next 2 weeks to figure out who the backup was going to be, which wouldn’t be enough time to do it right.

And thus we have the three-way QB battle isn’t really a three-way QB battle. The only way to give Wilson a real chance at the backup job, was to put him at least partially into the rotation for the starter’s job as well.

Hopefully you’ve noticed that I haven’t given my opinion on whether or not denying Wilson a real chance at the starting QB job was the correct call or not. That is an entirely different issue, and I didn’t want to cloud this issue by bringing in an entirely different discussion.

Aug 11, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; NFL: Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Flynn (15) passes against the Tennessee Titans at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE

Pete Carroll just announced that QB rotation for the 2nd preseason game will look exactly like it did in the first preseason game. Matt Flynn will start and play the first half, Russell Wilson will play the 2nd half. Tarvaris Jackson and Josh Portis will be available, but are not expected to play unless one of the others gets hurt.

Pete Carroll also said that the 3-way QB competition is still on, but what he didn’t say, but is now plainly obvious, is that the results of the competition has been decided.

Carroll is hedging his bets by claiming that the competition is still on, and keeping Jackson around. If one of the other QBs suffers a major injury, then Carroll will need Jackson on the roster as the backup. That is why Jackson wont be cut until after the 4th preseason game. Jackson’s fate now rests on the health of the other QBs.

I also don’t think that Wilson still has a chance to be the week 1 starter at this point. For the 2nd straight week, Wilson isn’t going to get any playing time with the first team offense, or against players who will get any sort of significant playing time in the regular season. While these snaps are very useful in helping Wilson develop into an eventual starter, they aren’t particularly useful in helping determining if Wilson is ready to be the week 1 starter. The fact that Wilson isn’t a chance to run with the first team offense this week says that Carroll believe Wilson wont be the starter in week 1.

You can disagree with Carroll’s decision about who the #1 QB will be week 1 all you want. I know there are a ton of fans who want Wilson to start week 1, but the fact is that Flynn will be starting the season at the #1 QB barring injury.