At some point Tuesday, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is expected to name a starting quarterback for his team's third preseason game, which comes against the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday night.
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Free-agent addition Matt Flynn has started and played the entire first half in both of the Seahawks' preseason games thus far. Russell Wilson, a 2012 third-round draft pick, came off the bench to play the second half, but those roles could be reversed this week.
According to Danny O'Neill of The Seattle Times, Wilson appears to be the choice to start this week. O'Neill is basing Wilson's nod on "multiple indications" following the team's Monday meetings.
NFL.com and NFL Network's Albert Breer confirmed Tuesday that Wilson will indeed start the game, as ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported Monday.
Carroll later announced at a news conference that Wilson will get the nod against the Chiefs.
"This is about competition," Carroll said, via The Associated Press. "This is what we've always been about and if somebody doesn't see it that way then they don't understand us and I can't do anything about that. This is a great competitive opportunity to watch and for me to oversee as a coach and it's exciting and it's been fun to see it through and we're going to finish it up the next couple of weeks."
Starting Wilson in this game is par for the course considering the unconventional way in which Carroll has gone about, and quite possibly butchered, determining the Seahawks' starting quarterback this offseason.
By splitting what was a decreased number of reps in the OTAs, minicamp and training camp -- which Jackson opened in charge of the first-team offense -- each quarterback could make the case that he did not receive a sufficient number of snaps in order to grab hold of the job. Even after Flynn appeared to nudge ahead of the other two quarterbacks and started the preseason opener, what did Carroll do? He had Jackson back getting first-team reps in training camp last Tuesday.
This scatterbrained approach to the position is why Wilson starting the third preseason game might have absolutely no impact on who starts the regular-season opener against the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 9. Heck, fourth-stringer Josh Portis could be the starter in that game.
The only certainty at the quarterback position for the Seahawks right now is that Tarvaris Jackson and his $4 million base salary will be wearing a triple-layered bubble wrap suit and sitting behind (or under) the bench or, more preferably to general manager John Schneider, in a panic room inside team headquarters until he's traded or released.
Follow Brian McIntyre on Twitter _@brianmcintyre_.
