Russell Wilson also talked about his memories of Lynch, who he paired with in the Seattle backfield from 2012-15.
The Seahawks held one final practice at the VMAC in Renton Wednesday before getting on a plane and heading to London.
Here are highlights of what we heard:
BOBBY WAGNER CAN’T WAIT TO TACKLE MARSHAWN LYNCH
Marshawn Lynch did not play against the Seahawks in preseason games the last two years after becoming a member of the Oakland Raiders. And the Seahawks basically do little to-the-ground tackling (if any) during training camp anyway, with Lynch often sitting out scrimmages that are held.
The result is that members of the Seahawks who were teammates of his during his Seattle tenure will get their first chance to tackle him in Sunday’s game in London.
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There are actually only two members of the Seattle defense who will play Sunday who were with the team during any part of Lynch’s time — middle linebacker Bobby Wagner and defensive end Frank Clark.
“Never got the chance to tackle Marshawn,” Wagner said Wednesday. “Talked a lot of trash. We finally get to go against each other. So it’s going to be fun.”
Wagner said he did hit Lynch hard a few times, once resulting in a quick veteran-to-rookie lesson.
“I might have hit him kind of hard as a rookie and he kind of came up to me and went ‘we don’t go that hard over here,’ or something like that,” Wagner said. “Nah, I’ve never; you see the way the dude runs the ball he’s kind of like a quarterback, you don’t want to (hit him). He was a very big part of our success so I wasn’t going to do anything to hurt him.”
Will it be difficult to want to hit Lynch hard now given how close they were as Seattle teammates?
Wagner laughed.
“Not him,” he said. “He talked so much trash. I told him if we ever go against each other I’m going to make sure to hit him. And he would always talk about how linebackers and everyone else would go low so I’m going to go high on him. Not saying I’m going to go high all game but I’m going to catch him sleeping for sure.”
RUSSELL WILSON’S MEMORY OF LYNCH? ‘HE WAS ALWAYS LAUGHING’
Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson won’t have to tackle Lynch. But he will get a chance to watch him run in person again, which he said Wednesday was one of his favorite parts of playing with him from 2012-15.
“One of the coolest things about Marshawn is when you hand the ball off to him, you get to watch him run,’’ Wilson said. “Some of the moves that he makes, he’s one of a kind in terms of that ability. I have a lot of respect and love for him.”
Asked a favorite run of Lynch’s, Wilson mentioned the “Beastquake 2.0’’ run against Arizona in 2014, a 79-yard touchdown run that stands as the longest of Lynch’s career.
“That was a pretty amazing run,’’ Wilson said.
Lynch and Wilson are hardly cut from the same cloth. But the two also had a spectacularly successful partnership on the field that made clear they had a tight relationship where it mattered most.
“Marshawn and I, we were always close in the sense that he’s never wanted to talk too, too much around me necessarily but we also talked a lot about life and ball and everything else. I think that he had a lot of wisdom in the sense of just how to do things and he was such a great team player and would do whatever it takes. Those are the things that I remember the most. He was always laughing. He was always relaxed, he was always poised, he always knew how to play the game and play the game the right way.”
TEAMMATES STILL REVELING IN FLUKER’S BLOCK ON NDAMUKONG SUH
The play the Seahawks might have liked more than any other Sunday was a six-yard Mike Davis TD run in the first quarter in which guard D.J. Fluker flattened Rams’ defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.
It’s a play the offensive line has watched repeatedly all week.
“At least 10 times,” left tackle Duane Brown said Wednesday. “And it never gets old. It doesn’t get any better than that. That’s not easy — I’ve got a lot of respect for Suh. You don’t see that happen often. I don’t know what he’s (Fluker) tipping the scales at, but he makes a lot of people look small out there. He plays with a great amount of aggression, I love it.”
DUANE BROWN SAYS OPPOSING DEFENSES ARE ‘GOING TO FEEL US’
Brown also talked of what he thinks is the key to an improved Seattle rushing attack — Seattle has averaged 158 rushing yards per game the last three weeks, which coincides with the addition of Fluker at right guard after he sat out the first two games due to injury, and J.R. Sweezy playing left guard in place of Ethan Pocic.
“I think we’ve just created an identity,” Brown said. “At first, we were all trying to just improve as individual players, trying to mesh and create that continuity and that chemistry. As we’ve gotten comfortable and played with more confidence, you can just see the evolution there. I think we’ve all gotten better as individual players.”
Brown said this is the best the Seahawks’ offensive line has been as a group.
“We were very confident, we communicate well to the point where we don’t have to communicate. That’s where you want to be as a line — where you don’t have to over-communicate, everybody kind of knows what each other’s going to do, we’re all on the same page,” Brown said. “We’re physical, everyone’s playing with a great amount of physicality and aggression. We know what we can do. We’ve done it over the course of a few weeks now, we know that can be our identity, that’s what we can be about no matter who we line up against. It’s a great feeling and it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Asked to further describe the Seahawks, Brown delivered a particularly interesting quote: “We are a very physical team, we’re an aggressive team. We’re going to run the ball. We feel like we can run the ball every week and we’re going to make our presence felt every week. Teams are going to feel us, they’re going to respect us. That’s where we are.”
SEAHAWKS ANNOUNCE GRANT DONATIONS
Before answering questions from the media Wednesday, Brown announced that the team’s Seahawks Players Equality and Justice for All Action Fund had made eight grants of $25,000 to $50,000 totaling $225,000.
Brown said the donations were made on behalf of himself, Wagner, K.J. Wright and Doug Baldwin and focused on homelessness, criminal justice, and bail reform and education.
The grant recipients as announced by Brown are: “The Cocoon House, The FareStart and Mary’s Place. In the area of criminal justice and bail reform, the recipients are Northwest Community Bail Fund, Public Defenders Association and Community Justice Project. Finally, in the area of education, the recipient is MoHundred. We appreciate all the work that these organizations are doing to address these issues and are honored to support their work. We’d like to thank all of those who have continued to donate to the players fund and the Seattle Foundation for their partnership in our efforts.”