Seahawks learn again on Friday how bad team would be without Russell Wilson

Seahawks quarterback had to miss practice on Friday due to the death of his grandfather. Seattle’s offense struggled badly without him.

Russell Wilson missed practice on Friday. The Seahawks quarterback not only does not miss games but he hardly ever misses practice. Since the year he was drafted Wilson has missed no games and just two practices. Only one of those practices was sort of real as the 2015 session Wilson missed was an OTA.

Wilson had every right to miss practice on Friday, though, as he was attending the funeral for his grandfather, Harrison Wilson, in Norfolk, Virginia. Harrison passed away earlier this week due to complications from dementia. The quarterback might be a committed team player but family sometimes has to come first for all of us.

In Wilson’s absence, Seattle got a closer look at who the backups are currently to Wilson, Geno Smith and Paxton Lynch. They were both terrible. Smith got every chance to show he should be Wilson’s number two, but in a red zone scrimmage where the quarterback gets five tries to score Smith was 0 for 5. That’s awful. Smith threw short, out of rhythm or high. I want to joke that that was all on one play but the truth of what Smith did is much sadder.

Lynch was no better. He threw behind Seahawk receivers on multiple occasions. His mechanics were bad before he came to Seattle and Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer can only do so much with faulty material.

The fact is that neither Smith or Lynch should be the backup to Wilson. Seattle needs to find someone else to bring in to camp. The Seahawks could look at someone like Mark Sanchez or bring back Austin Davis. Neither of those guys are good but at least Davis was with Seattle for a short time and Schottenheimer coached Sanchez previously. Both might still be better options than Smith or Lynch.

To be truthful, though, Seattle won’t make the playoffs without Russell Wilson. He makes the team a contender. After practice on Friday, tight end Nick Vannett said simply, “Without (Wilson), it’s tough.” Actually, Nick, without Russell Wilson making the playoffs is impossible. Especially with who his current backups are.