Russell Wilson missed the first three starts of his career due to injury. The QB wasn't about to make it four.
The Seattle Seahawks quarterback underwent surgery to repair a finger injured in Week 5. The initial timeline suggested at least a six-week absence. Wilson is back after just four on the shelf.
Wilson was cleared for a return on Monday ahead of the Seahawks' Week 10 game against the Green Bay Packers.
"This is a remarkable story of recovery, and really of a guy setting the intent that he was going to do this and pull off, and he's way, way ahead of schedule," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday, via the team's official website. "We just came off the practice field, and he threw the ball all over the place. He did really well for the first time out in a limited amount of plays. Everything about it -- we knew that Russ was going to go for it; we didn't know if his body could respond, but it did. His team that worked with him and helped him throughout did a remarkable job. So we'll just go one day at a time and see how it goes. I know he's thrilled to be back, everybody's excited to see him back out here. It's an amazing accomplishment to be back. Just throwing like he just did on the practice field is a great achievement."
Carroll's astonishment at Wilson's swift recovery was matched by Dr. Steve Shin, who performed the surgery. Shin noted Monday that he was "absolutely amazed at (Wilson's) progress."
Carroll wouldn't name Wilson the starter for Sunday, but the expectation remains that the QB will be back on the field after his short recovery.
"Knowing Russ, this was the week that I was thinking, if he could pull off something miraculous, then this would be the week he could play," Carroll said when asked if he thought this quick of a comeback was realistic. "Just judging from the six to eight-week thing with broken bones that everybody's aware of, that's kind of how you could look at it on one end of it. But we thought, what could be the earliest he could possibly do it, could he possibly pull it off? And he did. Just to make it to practice today, he looked great out there today, that's an enormous accomplishment. That was the kind of the hopes that if he could pull off something special that it might happen this week. That's kind of what we're thinking. He was ready to go yesterday. He would have wanted to play yesterday if he was able to."
The Seahawks sit at 3-5, currently 10th in the NFC. But with most of the teams in their win range losing this week, Seattle is in prime position to swipe one of the final postseason spots if it can make a run. Getting Russ back on the field sooner than expected could be the start of that late-season streak.
