The Seattle Seahawks Stole Leon Washington From The Jets

The Seattle Seahawks Stole Leon Washington from the Jets

I think everyone knows how good of a draft the Seahawks had this past weekend, but it was capped off by a couple of trades that Seattle made on the final day of the draft.  After acquiring LenDale White from the Titans and reuniting the underachieving running back with his former college coach, the Seahawks made another trade for another running back.  Leon Washington’s 2009 season ended prematurely due to a broken leg.  I guess New York is a little concerned that Washington will never fully gain back the explosiveness and speed that made him one of the most electrifying kick returners in the NFL as well as one of the best change of pace backs in the NFL.  Because of that, the Jets dealt Washington on the final day of the draft to the Seahawks for a fifth round pick.  A fifth round pick!  That’s it.  What a steal for the Seahawks and what a great weekend.  Not only did they add Russell Okung.

Earl Thomas, and Golden Tate, but they took little risk by adding Leon Washington and LenDale White to help beef up their running back position.  And if Washington can’t return to the form that he has shown the last couple of years prior to his injury, then so be it because Seattle only had to give up a fifth round pick in order to bring him to Seattle.  And if he does return to the form that he has shown over the last couple of years, than Washington becomes even more of a steal for Pete Carroll and the new regime in the Pacific Northwest.Leon Washington joined KJR in Seattle with Ian Furness to talk about how he is recovering from his injury, what he thinks of Pete Carroll, how he thinks he fits in Seattle’s loaded backfield, and what his goal is in Seattle.

On how his recovery is going:

“I can definitely walk.  Just got done playing golf in New York over the weekend, on Friday actually, so I can definitely walk.  My leg is doing great.  I’m right on schedule, I’ll be right on pace to be ready for training camp.  I’ve been working really hard ever since I got injured during the year last year to get myself ready.  Physically I feel great.  I know I’m blessed to play football.  I’m a talented enough player to get it done.  If my body feels good, I’ll perform well on the football field.”

On whether or not he can see a positive in his injury because there wasn’t damage to his knee:

“Nothing about my injury was good.  You never want to break any bones in your body, but the fortunate part about me having that compound fracture is I had no ankle or knee damage.  All it was was sticking a rod in my bone down my tib (tibula) and letting it heal up.  Right now it’s 90 percent healed.  I can really go out and play on it right now.  It feels great, I got great ankle and knee flexibility, and I’m getting my strength back.  I’m in the training room right now working on it right now.  I’m just pleased to be a part of this organization that is moving toward the right steps and getting back to the winning tradition that the Seahawks are used to having over this decade.”

On Pete Carroll:

“The great thing about Coach Carroll is that he’s a player’s coach.  So many players across the league and so many players that come out of high school want to go play for Pete Carroll because he’s a coach that players can actually believe in and trust.  Everything that we do is going to be competitive, everybody’s gonna compete for every position, have a fresh start, and come out here and win football games.  It’s all about winning.  I like the confidence that he displayed.  I sat down in his office today and talked to him today because I just flew in this morning and everything seems to be great.  I just look forward to coming out here and helping this team win football games any way I can.”

On the loaded backfield in Seattle now:

“It has to be that.  We can’t come in here thinking like ‘oh were gonna do better than last year.’  No, we gotta come in, compete, and try to win the division.  Coach Carroll realizes that and that’s why he accepted this job with the Seahawks because he knew it was an opportunity for him to be in the NFL once again and have an opportunity to work with some guys that he saw on the roster.  Of the players I met in the locker room so far, I met Justin Forsett, (Kelly) Jennings, I met a couple of other guys, their thing is let’s come in here and win football games.  Watching them work, they’re definitely on the right track getting to that.”

On his role within the offense and his goal in Seattle:

“Not at all.  I feel like when I go out there I’m gonna give my best and I feel like I’m the best at what I do.  The players around me should feel the same way.  This is a great opportunity for us to work together to accomplish a common goal.  I don’t have a Super Bowl ring in my repertoire yet and I definitely want one.  I want LenDale, Justin, (Julius) Jones, and Andrew to understand that we want a Super Bowl ring.  And if we want to do this, we need to do this together and have a healthy competition and the best man may win and that’s all we can expect from this situation.”