Russell Wilson is on pace to get sacked more times in a season than any other QB in NFL history

Russell Wilson has never had great blocking in his six-plus seasons with the Seahawks. His 2018 Seattle offensive line, however, could be historically bad.

Wilson’s always been a damage sponge, but he’s already been sacked 12 times through two games this season for an 0-2 team with few prospects for improvement. That’s put him on pace to usurp David Carr as the league’s most-sacked passer — and break a 16-year record in the process.

Carr’s budding career was stunted thanks in part to a Houston Texans offensive line that struggled to build any kind of foundation in the trenches as a turn of the millennium expansion team. The franchise’s first year of existence was also its most brutal; the then-rookie wound up on the turf 76 times in 2002, breaking Randall Cunningham’s 16-year record of 72 single-season sacks in the process.

It’s only been two games, but Wilson is on pace to get sacked 96 times. 96 times!

Week 1: 6 sacks vs. Broncos
Week 2: 6 sacks vs. Bears
Total: 12 sacks

And while his six sacks per game average probably won’t remain that high, he’s got a very real shot at planting his flag as the most abused QB in league history this fall. He needs 65 more sacks in 2018 to eclipse Carr’s mark. That’s roughly 4.6 sacks per game.

Wilson is going to give that ignominious mark a run for its money. Left on an island, Wilson is surrounded by replacement-level players thanks, in part to Doug Baldwin’s MCL tear but mostly awful roster management.

The Bears got to him five times in the first half of their Week 2 game, rarely leaving him any time to operate before gassing out over the final two quarters. The rest of this year’s schedule gives him seven more games against teams currently ranked in the top 11 when it comes to sack percentage — and that doesn’t count a Rams team anchored by Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers, who he’ll have to face twice.

Up next is a date with the Dallas Cowboys, a team that tore through the Giants’ offensive line like Kleenex before sacking Eli Manning six times. But while New York’s blocking has been bad, Manning’s sack rate is still only about 60 percent of what Wilson’s is through two games. That could spell disaster on Sunday — and another game that pushes the Seahawks toward the Texans’ ugly record in the process.

The Seahawks had a crummy offensive line even when they were a conference champion. Wilson has been sacked at least 41 times in each of the last five seasons, partially due to his mobility and risk-taking in the pocket but mostly due to awful blocking. Now that Seattle is in the midst of a rebuild, that unit has gotten even worse.

The team has taken various steps to address this problem. Few have worked. In 2016, the club spent its first-round pick on behemoth Germain Ifedi, who has been a below-average starter at right tackle and got beaten like a rented mule’s dusty rug against the Bears. His biggest highlight of the year to date is pancaking J.R. Sweezy, who is his teammate.

2017 second-round pick Ethan Pocic has improved after a dismal rookie season — he rated out 76th among all NFL guards last year — but still struggles in pass protection. Those issues led the team last season to trade a pair of draft selections to acquire left tackle Duane Brown, who has been good but also turned 33 in August. This offseason, the Seahawks also added D.J. Fluker, the blocking equivalent of nachos made with nothing but Velveeta and black olives last year with the Giants. Fifth-round pick Jamarco Jones was pushing for Ifedi’s job this preseason before being sidelined by an ankle injury.

That’s another issue. Besides Jones, Fluker, Pocic, and starting center Justin Britt have all been dealing with injuries early in the season.

There’s a chance Pocic and Ifedi develop into the kind of players who live up to their draft status — Pocic in particular — or Jones rises from Day 3 to become a useful starter, but the rest of the team’s offensive line depth is stocked with athletes who have either reached their ceiling as players or have limited potential in the first place. The good news is the Seahawks will have plenty of salary cap space (an estimated $61 million before additional cuts are made) to burn next offseason to address this problem. The bad news is they have holes at nearly every other position that will need to be filled as well.

Well, the bulk of it is, but the four-time Pro Bowler isn’t getting much help elsewhere on the roster. There are other factors that could mean five sacks per game is a sustainable mark.

Seattle’s running game has been nonexistent since Marshawn Lynch decided to stage his brief retirement. The Seahawks tried to remedy that by selecting Rashaad Penny with the 27th pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. Not only was that a reach — Penny was widely considered a Day 2 talent — but the odds were stacked against him from Day 1 in the Pacific Northwest since he landed on a team with no blocking. As a result, he’s rushed for 38 yards on 17 carries in his first two games.

Chris Carson has been better as the team’s No. 2 option, but his pre-injury 2017 performance suggests opponents don’t need long to figure him out. Even when he’s at the top of his game, there’s no guarantee Pete Carroll is going to play him anyway. That ineffectiveness and inconsistency gives the Seattle offense little recourse but to rely on its passing game.

There’s another reason the Hawks are passing more and more — they’re losing, and they’re going to be losing for a while. Wilson has averaged 42 dropbacks per game while he’s worked to will his team back into contention after early deficits. For comparison’s sake, Wilson dropped back 34 times per game (counting runs) during his Super Bowl season in 2013. Teams playing with a lead run more and throw less in order to burn off the clock. Based on Seattle’s roster, that’s not something they’ll see a lot of in 2018.

That means more opportunities for Wilson to get hit, which is happening at a historic rate. An awful Colts offensive line ranked dead last in the NFL by allowing Jacoby Brissett to get sacked on 10.3 percent of his passing opportunities in 2017. Through two games, the Seahawks are hovering around 14.8 percent.

In the past 16 seasons, only two teams have gone higher than 13 percent on this scale of shame. The ‘02 Texans — the team that set the record for most sacks allowed in a season — topped out at 14.5. There’s still a ton of football to be played, but Seattle’s combination of limited blocking, a difficult schedule littered with pass rushing studs, and a quarterback with a penchant for extending plays in the pocket and sacrificing his body rather than throwing the ball away gives Wilson a real chance to chase down Carr’s record and wrestle it to the turf eight lines behind the line of scrimmage.

Unless he gets hurt, in which case, enjoy your steady diet of Brett Hundley scrambles, Seahawk fans.