After a year-long hiatus with the Rams who happen to be the Seahawks season opening Bobby Wagner believes the Seahawk’s defense is not only coming together but on course to achieve its goals.
“I feel as if it is coming together really well. I think a lot of it is just communication. A lot of it is getting out there and making checks and things of that nature so, now it’s going to be nice to change gears and focus on preparing for a certain team and getting ready for the season, said Wagner after Tuesday practice. “ I feel very confident about our guys and where we’re at.”
One of the reasons Wagner is feeling confident about the defense is the quick and miraculous return of Jordyn Brooks. An ACL tear in the Hawk’s Week 17 game against the N.Y. Jets ended Brook’s season. A vigorous and aggressive rehab program saw Brooks return to the practice field just nine months after the injury.
“It’s been amazing. To have an injury like that towards the later part of the season and be able to work your butt off, make it, and be in the position that he is in has been amazing. It shows how hard he’s willing to work and what this means to him. I’m excited to get the opportunity to play with him again and we are going to make the most of it.”
The twelve-year veteran and seven-time All-Pro Bowler Wagner has always been a leader based on servant leadership. A leadership principle that allows those with knowledge and experience to allow others to learn from their experiences and wait for them to ask for advice rather than give it.
“I think I’ve always been in the place of trying to offer advice. I think sometimes too, the people you are talking to have to want the advice and sometimes you kind of wait and see who wants the advice or not. Also when you see something that you’ve seen before and you know what route that’s going to go, good or bad, you speak up and you try to do you best and lead in a positive direction.”
As for the direction of the Seahawk’s defense, Wagner believes the extra competition during this summer’s training camp has created a competitive edge that has brought out an eagerness for the players to be their best.
“It’s been a great camp. All across the board, you have guys that want to prove things whether that’s older guys that want to prove they’ve still got it, or younger guys that want to prove that they belong here. It’s been a very competitive camp. It’s been fun to be a part of, and I’m excited to get back out there and get these live bullets.”
With a young defense sprinkled with some veterans, the Seahawk’s defense will need to continually improve each week and find its identity at some point in the season and draw from that according to Wagner. Who believes all the great defenses have an identity
“I think it kind of depends. Every year is different. I think some years it’s the first four games, and some years it doesn’t take until after the bye whatever that is. It could be an early bye or a late bye. I think it’s the challenges that you get. There have been teams that started 8-0, and never really found their identity. They just play well and fall off at the end of the season.
There have been teams that started off 1-4 but found their identity and went on to be a 12-win team. A lot of it is going out there and creating. It’s my first time playing with a lot of those guys, it’s their first time playing with me, and figuring out how you feed off one another during a game, and figuring out how you handle challenges during a game. Hopefully, we don’t have them, but we haven’t been on a 14-play drive and a series that’s really challenging. You learn that through the course of the season as the team that can capture that and hone that in. I don’t know when that’s going to be, but hopefully, it’s early and at the right time because there are teams that find that early on but lose it late and vice versa. You want to be the team that’s hot when you get to the playoffs.”
