JERSEY CITY, NJ — Peyton Manning is a serial texter, pinging quarterback coach Gregg Knapp at many hours of the night. For offensive coordinator Adam Gase, it’s a constant flow of voice memos.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll knows the feeling. Two years ago when Manning was first released by the Indianapolis Colts, his phone rang.
“He woke me up one morning,” Carroll said. “That was the beginning of a very short process.”
The Seahawks laid out their high level of interest and, while he wouldn’t share details, Carroll explained how Manning fit into the grand plan in Seattle. The abbreviated conversation was the last one between coach and player. Carroll said the Seahawks stayed in touch with Tom Condon, Manning’s agent, trying to work their way into the second phase of the process.
“He had set up his visits,” Carroll said.
But following his “always compete” philosophy, Carroll and general manager John Schneider took owner Paul Allen’s private jet to Denver, where Manning would be concluding a visit with the Broncos and vice president John Elway. Manning’s destination was Arizona, and Carroll told Condon they were willing to meet anywhere or fly Manning to visit with Ken Whisenhunt and the Cardinals.
“The magnitude of the player, there was some excitement,” Carroll allowed Wednesday.
“Peyton (Manning) is as good of a football player as you could find at any level, at any time, in any state of the history of this game.”
But the first call from Manning that drowsy morning was the last.
Carroll was less convicted when Schneider insisted on 6-foot quarterback Russell Wilson, who capped a sparkling two-school, four-year college career with Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. So they signed Matt Flynn in free agency, a player Schneider scouted closely as a scouting director with the Green Bay Packers. But when Wilson was still available in the third round, Carroll gave in to Schneider’s “feeling” that Wilson would be special.
“I want to be the best one day, I’m not going to shy away from that,” Wilson said.
The Broncos saw something in Wilson, too. Gase was in the middle of a pre-draft visit with Wilson at the Broncos’ Dove Valley headquarters when the self-confident quarterback learned Manning was in the building — studying tape, of course — and asked to pop his head in the film room to say hello to a hero.
Gase charted every throw for all the quarterbacks in the 2012 draft and said Wilson’s deep-ball accuracy was so staggering he triple-checked it. True enough, Wilson hit more than 68 percent of his passes downfield.
“That’s ridiculous — the majority of the class was at about 28-32 percent,” Gase said.
Wilson said his meeting with Schneider on the first night of the Senior Bowl was a strong indication where he might wind up. He met with offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and Carroll the second night in Mobile, Ala., and learned the terminology of the play-action based offense was exactly the same as the Wisconsin scheme. Still, there was no certainty he’d settle in a comfortable spot with the Philadelphia Eagles and many others meeting with him repeatedly.
“I just wanted someone to pick me,” Wilson said. “I ended up putting all 32 teams in a hat and said whatever team I pick is going to pick me. Two weeks later, I was a Seattle Seahawk.”
There were some tensely uncomfortable moments in the third round.
“To a certain extent, quite honestly, I prayed about it a bunch. We try not to panic in our room. We listen to Reggae music and we don’t have the TVs on,” Schneider recalled. “When we have the TVs on, we have the volume turned down. We try to keep a very calm atmosphere where if we need to have discussions, we can talk about it. When he started coming closer to us, there was a group of quarterbacks taken higher and then there was a second group that was going to start going in there.”
Bevell said the similarities in the offense put Wilson well ahead of the curve. He learned the offense in “basically two weeks,” Bevell said. Last offseason, Schneider and Carroll had to force Wilson to stay away from the team facility. He just doesn’t have an off button, Schneider said.
“The thing that I’m trying to work on to be more like him is the attention to detail,” Wilson said. “Obviously, Peyton Manning is known for his leadership, all the checks at the line of scrimmage. I think that competitive edge is very similar.”
Wilson and Manning cross paths again Sunday in Super Bowl XLVIII.
“He’s the epitome of what you want in your competitor. He’s got tremendous work habits. He’s got extraordinary athleticism. He’s got a general all-around savvy that allows him to make great decisions under pressure,” Carroll said of Wilson’s first two seasons. “He’s extremely confident too, so no matter what is going on, he’s not going to waver in his focus and ability to handle things. He’s just been a blast to coach.”