Seahawks to Stick With Wilson as Starting Quarterback

Coach Pete Carroll says that Russell Wilson is not far off from being a very successful leader at quarterback for the Seahawks.

"He's not far off from being really, really successful right now as a leader in that position," Carroll said

Players were not available for interviews Monday, but Carroll said no quarterback change is coming.

Wilson remains Seattle's starting quarterback heading into this week's game against Carolina, and four weeks through this season, Seattle's coach tried to take a big-picture perspective on his rookie's performance.

"He's a first-time starter," Carroll said. "He has been in every game and had a chance to win 'em. He's won one of them, and two of them got away from us at the end there."

In a Newstalk KIT poll taken Monday, 62.5% of those who responded said that Matt Flynn should be the starter.

Danny O'Neil wrote in today's Seattle Times:

Flynn suffered from a sore elbow in August, a condition similar to tendinitis and it prevented him from playing in the team's third exhibition game at Kansas City. That game turned out to be Wilson's closing argument in earning the starting job.

As the backup quarterback, Flynn doesn't get as many repetitions in practice, but in Week 3, he served as the scout-team quarterback, doing his best imitation of former teammate Aaron Rodgers to get Seattle's defense ready for the Packers.

"He had a very good week that week," Carroll said, "and it looked like he's ready to go."

But even then, Flynn's number of throws were limited, something Carroll compared to a pitch count.

"We've never had him throw the amount of throws that a starting quarterback does," Carroll said.

To say Flynn is injured is incorrect, though. He is the only quarterback other than Wilson on the roster, and would be ready to play were Seattle's starter to suffer an injury. The only caveat is there's a little bit of uncertainty if the elbow injury would flare up again if he's given the workload of a starter.

"I don't know if it would act up or not," Carroll said, "because he hasn't had to do that yet."

You can hear the Seahawks and the Panthers Sunday morning, with the broadcast starting at 11A.M. on Newstalk KIT.