Seahawks position battles: Pete Carroll praises the “other” backup QB in camp this year

We know that the Seattle Seahawks have so far stuck to their guns as far as using one of two untested young players to backup Russell Wilson, but will they still feel that way in September after a lot more practice and four preseason games? Maybe they will and maybe they won’t now that Tarvaris Jackson won’t be facing any criminal charges, but from the sounds of it, Pete Carroll is very happy with what he’s seen from Trevone Boykin and Jake Heaps.

Perhaps especially Heaps.

"(Boykin) is always able to make things happen and in a very similar fashion as Russell did," Carroll said. "We're very confident that he has a chance to help us. Let me tell you though, you didn't ask about him, but Jake Heaps is lighting it up, he is having a great camp, so that is a very good position for us obviously right now."

Carroll made it very clear in his press conference on Friday that they like Boykin for several reasons but then went out of his way to tell everyone that Heaps is “lighting it up.” It makes you wonder if Carroll is starting to sew the seeds for the media and fans to not act surprised if Heaps wins the job over Boykin before their September 11 game against the Miami Dolphins.

Those who pay attention to high school football or recruiting or just picked up a newspaper in Seattle in the early aughts already know about Heaps. He was the number one QB prospect in the country in 2009 coming out of Skyline in Sammamish, Washington, electing to play for BYU and going on to have an exceptional freshman season. But after a poor performance in 2011 caused him to lose the starting job, Heaps transferred to Kansas but when that also didn’t work out he transferred to Miami where he lost the job to the latest hot-shot freshman QB, Brad Kaaya.

Before I get too excited about the possibilities of Jake Heaps, I’d remind myself that he was absolutely terrible in college, completing 53% of his passes over his last two seasons for 5.6 Y/A, 17 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. A lot of you probably followed his career much more closely than I did and know more of his personal background and story that went along with such an abysmal college career, but I’ve seen a lot of hotshot high school recruits go on to get NFL jobs they weren’t nearly ready for and have it not work out. Of course, there are always the exceptions to the rule, the players who finally reached their full potential with the right coach. I can think of one right now: Thomas Rawls.

If Heaps beats out Boykin for the job (which is assuming they don’t get beat out by a veteran who isn’t on the team right now), then good for him. We can only assume that Carroll would know what he’s doing because Carroll also once saw a lot more in Russell Wilson than anyone else could have imagined when he gave him the starting job in 2012. Either way, fans have to be encouraged that both of the young QBs in camp behind Wilson appear to be doing quite well.