Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll trade barbs over wristband use

The tension between Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson, the longtime Seahawks quarterback who was traded to the Denver Broncos in the offseason, continued this week with the two publicly throwing some mild shade at each other.

The war of words between Carroll and Wilson started Monday when Carroll was interviewed by a local Seattle radio station about the Seahawks’ surprising 6-3 record in their first year with Geno Smith at quarterback. Carroll heaped praise on Smith and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, and applauded Smith’s use of a wristband to help him refer to play calls. Without mentioning Wilson by name, Carroll said there had been “resistance” to using a wristband in the past.

“He’s getting everything he can get out of Shane,” Carroll said of Smith. “That’s a really important part of it. Shane helps him all the way through to the 15-second point. They’re just communicating to get it done. … Geno’s taking advantage of all of that. If you’ve noticed, Geno has been going off the wristband, and that’s a big help. It’s smoothed things out, sped things up, cleaned things up. That’s part of it too. We never did that before. There was resistance to that, so we didn’t do that before.”

Carroll went on to highlight the trust that Smith has in Waldron as well.

“When Shane says something to Geno, he’s not doubting it,” Carroll said. “He’s just going with it. There’s a real immediate flow and that accelerates the process.”

As Carroll alluded to, Wilson hardly ever wore a wristband during his tenure with the Seahawks. He also did not wear a wristband through his first seven games with the Broncos, as Denver stumbled out to a 2-5 record behind a struggling offense — including a Week 1 loss to the Seahawks in Wilson’s return to Seattle. However, Wilson did wear a wristband during the Broncos’ 21-17 Week 8 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

Wilson fired back when he was asked about his wristband usage and his former coach’s comments Wednesday.

“I don’t know exactly what [Carroll] said, but I won a lot of games there without one on the wrist,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know winning or losing mattered if you wore a wristband or not.”

The Broncos come off their Week 9 bye to face the Tennessee Titans on the road Sunday. Denver is currently third in the AFC West behind the 6-2 Kansas City Chiefs and 5-3 Los Angeles Chargers.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure we’re rolling and moving and everything else,” Wilson said.

Wristband or no wristband, Broncos fans hope whatever changes Wilson makes can help turn their team’s offense — and their season — around.