Russell Wilson: How long will he be out with finger injury?

In the second half of Thursday’s Seahawks and Rams game, quarterback Russell Wilson suffered a finger injury that forced him to miss the fourth quarter. This was the most time Russell Wilson had missed due to injury in his career. Seattle now has 10 days off to try to recover before they play the Steelers next Sunday.

Wilson suffered a “badly sprained” finger, according to coach Pete Carroll, when Wilson attempted to pass but in his follow-through he hit Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald. The quarterback did play one more series after the injury but did not throw any deep passes.

The issue seemed to be that Russell Wilson could not grip the ball well enough to throw with his normal accuracy and limited his great ability to throw downfield. On the play that Wilson was injured he was throwing a deep sidelines pass to receiver Tyler Lockett that ended up just out of the reach of Lockett.

Russell Wilson could miss his next start with finger injury

If there is a positive to take out of the Seahawks loss to the Rams, it was that when backup Geno Smith came in Smith was actually very good. Smith did throw an interception but the pick wasn’t his fault as the intended target, Lockett, tripped on the play and was not in the area Smith expected him to be.

If Wilson does have to miss any games (and if he misses any he will end his streak of starting 149 straight games for Seattle), at least it appears Smith could do a decent job of running the offense. In fact, the Seahawks scored more points after Wilson left the game than with him in it.

So how long will Russell Wilson be out? Carroll said “there’s work to be done in accessing all of that” but then went on to praise – rightfully so – Smith. If one were to parse Pete talk, Wilson is likely very doubtful for next week and Geno Smith would be the starter.