Bobby Wagner without K.J. Wright for first time in his Seahawks career. He’s not thrilled
Yes, Bobby Wagner misses K.J. Wright.
How could he not?
The All-Pro middle linebacker had Wright at his side for nine years, eight Seahawks playoff appearances, two Super Bowls, Seattle’s only NFL championship and one shared Pro Bowl (in 2016). They made $117.1 million combined and countless, priceless memories together from the same team in the same defense inside the same locker room for a decade.
“It’s an adjustment,” the 31-year-old Wagner said flatly on Thursday, the second day of his NFL life without Wright as a teammate.
“It’s something you have to do.”
Wagner also misses the logic of Wright, who just turned 32 last week, still being unsigned.
Wagner can’t see how—as all training camps across the league have started, 4 1/2 months after Wright entered free agency because the Seahawks decided not to give him another contract—not one of NFL’s 32 teams has a want or need for an outside linebacker as smart, proven and still athletic as his best football friend.
Not even Seattle, the only team in the league Wright—and Wagner—have known.
“You know, I’ve been around him for my whole career,” Wagner said. “So it’s definitely something that you are conscious of, something that you have to understand how the business works. And hope for the best, kind of figure things out.
“I just think that it’s very...interesting, that someone can come off one of his best seasons and find himself not on a team. Definitely feel like he’s deserving of it. He’s a leader, someone that anyone would love to have on his team.
“Unfortunately, there’s a business side to this,” Wagner said.
“Still hoping for the best.”
For Wagner, that “best” at this point is Wright signing with any team.
Any other team than Seattle, it appears.
Seattle’s longest-tenured player told Sirius XM NFL Radio last week “there is a chance” he still might re-sign with the Seahawks.
Wright’s said many times he’d like to retire to live in Seattle beyond football.
“Yes, there is a chance. There is a chance. I’m not closing the door on Seattle,” Wright he said. “Going into free agency, I thought it would be a no-brainer. But they are going to wait until training camp.”
That now appears to have been Wright talking nice about his now-former team.
An league source with deep knowledge of the situation told The News Tribune last week there is very little chance Wright re-signs with the Seahawks at any time in 2021.
Fact is, he’s just not in Seattle’s plans.
It appears it will take a big change to those plans—a major injury to a starter the Seahawks are counting on this season at linebacker—for Wright to return this year. And by then, Wright may sign with another team that sustains a key injury and needs a veteran linebacker to play right away.
Jordyn Brooks, the Seahawks’ first-round draft choice last year, finished his second training-camp practice Thursday as the successor at weakside linebacker. That’s where Wright played for most of his 10 seasons with Seattle. Darrell Taylor, drafted in the second round last year as a defensive end, is getting a chance to play strongside linebacker on passing downs.
“He’s very explosive,” Wagner said.
Wright played strongside linebacker last season after Bruce Irvin had season-ending knee surgery after two games. Irvin, 33, had a second surgery this winter and is also unsigned.
Coach Pete Carroll went out of his way Wednesday to praise third-year veteran Cody Barton, the Seahawks’ third-round pick in 2019, for how he’s competing for one of the outside-linebacker jobs.
The role of strongside linebacker for Seattle may be less meaningful this year than last. That’s because Marquise Blair is returning from the season-ending knee surgery he had after just two games in 2020. Blair remains at the front of the Seahawks’ plans to play more nickel defense with five defensive backs and one fewer linebacker in the game — more nickel and less of three linebackers, that is, than Seattle has played the last two seasons after trusted nickel back Justin Coleman left in free agency.
Brooks has the speed to play with Wagner as the two linebackers roaming the field in nickel on passing downs.
Wright has played all three linebacker spots in Carroll’s 4-3 Seahawks defense. That includes Wagner’s at middle linebacker, in Wright’s rookie season of 2011, the year before Seattle drafted Wagner.
No player currently on the Seahawks’ defense knows it better than the guy no longer on it.
“I know what I provide to a team. I know that I (am) coming off my two best seasons, after suffering that knee injury (which required surgery in the summer of 2018). I had my two best years,” Wright said last week on Sirus XM. “Played phenomenal. Switched positions. ...
“For a guy that’s played ‘Sam’ (strongside), ‘Mike’ (middle) and ‘Will,’ (weakside) playing under a bunch of defensive coordinators, I know I can go into a training camp, pick up the playbook nice and easy, nice and fast, go out there and perform at any position they want me at.
“So, I’m excited, man. Whatever opportunity does present itself, I’m going to attack it and have fun in year 11. ...Making sure I am preparing myself to have another incredible season.”
Back in Seahawks training camp, Wagner looks to his side and can’t give Brooks, Taylor and Barton a simple head nod or even eyebrow raise to communicate what he’s about to do. That’s what he did the last nine years with Wright.
They didn’t use signals. They had an innate sense of each other.
“On my part, it’s more re-learning that the people around me aren’t knowing what I’m thinking,” Wagner said. “So you have to communicate more and help more.
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
But everything he’d rather not be doing.
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Bobby Wagner without K.J. Wright for first time in his Seahawks career. He’s not thrilled."
