DENVER (AP) — Whether Pete Carroll meant it as a dig at Russell Wilson or a dig at Geno Smith, the Seattle Seahawks coach has made play-calling wristbands a hot topic in the NFL during a turbulent season that has shaken up the long-standing quarterback order.
Carroll was discussing the Seahawks’ surprising success in 2022 after moving on from Wilson when he mentioned Smith’s willingness to wear a wristband to help Seattle’s play calls.
“If you notice, Geno doesn’t have a wristband anymore, and that’s a big help,” Carroll told Seattle Sports 710 AM earlier this month. “It smoothed things out, sped things up. And that’s part of the reason for this, too. We’ve never done this before. There was resistance to it. So, we hadn’t done it before.”
Wilson countered with his own subtle searchrecalling that he “won a lot of games there without having one on his wrist. And I didn’t know that winning or losing mattered, whether you wore the bracelet or not.”
Coincidentally, Wilson first wore a wristband with the Broncos in a win over the Jaguars in London two days before Carroll’s comments, and he’s been using it in games and practices ever since as the Broncos try to revive a struggling offense.
He even wore it to the podium on Wednesday.
“Yeah, I guess I’m wearing this bracelet here,” Wilson said with a laugh.
On any given weekend, about two-thirds of NFL quarterbacks wear a bracelet. Tom Brady wore one throughout his career. But some quarterbacks and coaches prefer memorization techniques for their more complex plays.
The bands that wrap around the non-throwing quarterback’s wrist and forearm contain dozens of plays with corresponding numbers or codes. They are often as beneficial to the play caller as they are to the quarterback, since he can simply call a single number rather than the entire play sequence with all its protections, checks and other nuances.
“As a playmaker, sometimes you want to get a little creative and these things can get a little wordy,” Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett said.
Calling a number and not the entire play sequence buys a few seconds before the quarterback’s earpiece goes off with 15 seconds left on the play clock. The quarterback can then relay the play and break up the huddle more quickly, getting to the line of scrimmage with a few extra seconds to examine the defense and make any necessary adjustments.
Hackett said the wristbands are especially useful on the road and are especially helpful for increasingly complex play calls.
“It’s just the way the attacks have progressed,” Hackett said. “…we’re getting more sophisticated in our play designs.”
Not all of the coaches’ decisions are reflected on the quarterbacks’ wristbands. They are often limited to complex or red-zone decisions that are implemented later in the week, meaning players have had less time to practice them.
However, bracelets are not suitable for everyone.
Some QBs, like the Titans’ Ryan Tannehill, have tried them but don’t wear them all the time like Brady does.
“Last year when we went to Seattle, I wore one” because of the noise at Lumen Field, Tannehill said. “Not too often. I like to be able to hear the call and visualize it in my head as it’s happening. It just helps me get a sense of what’s going on. When I hear it and have to visualize the play in my head, it helps me communicate with my guys rather than reading a line on a wristband.”
Vikings QB Kirk Cousins doesn’t typically wear a wristband, and that has something to do with Rams coach Sean McVay, who was Cousins’ offensive coordinator in Washington from 2014-16.
Cousins recalled telling McVay, “These pieces are long and I’m going to need a bracelet.”
“Sean would say, ‘I don’t look at the play sheet and call the play and see what the wristband number is. I just call the play with my head,’” Cousins said. “So he said, ‘We can’t do that because I’d have to go get the play and then give you the number.’ I learned from Sean that I’m just going to have to memorize these plays and I don’t have the luxury of a wristband.”
“There are so many different ways to do it and I think there are pros and cons to each way,” Cousins said. “There are times when I like to have a lot of words because it helps paint the picture better, but there are other times when you’re calling two or three plays and it can be a lot. With a move, a change of speed, a call and you’ve got the game clock, so there’s a lot going on.”
Cousins said he learned a trick from backup Nick Mullens as he digested the Vikings’ new offense this summer.
“I really struggled in late August and early September to find a place where I could really play the games with complete control,” Cousins said. He remembers Mullens telling him, “I just record the tough plays on my phone and instead of listening to music or the radio on the way to work, I just listen to the play calls.”
“I started doing that and my movements are a little more boring,” Cousins said, “but I find myself going home to the garage and feeling a little better about the game plan and my command of the game plan.”
___
AP Pro Football writers Dave Campbell in Minneapolis and Teresa Walker in Nashville and AP Sports writer Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl And https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
