Between the Lines with Seahawks coach Pete Carroll

RENTON – Seahawks coach Pete Carroll answered questions Tuesday after the final training-camp practice that was open to fans. So in the spirit of giving you an inside look at what’s happening with the team, we broke out the not-yet-patented 710 ESPN Seattle Coach Translator to read between the lines.

Keep in mind, no translation can ever be considered perfectly literal, and in this case, you should take them with a rather large grain of salt.

Reporter: It looked like Percy Harvin limped off the practice field and came back.

What Carroll said: “He got stepped on. Yeah, he got stepped on the back of his heel. He got scraped up pretty good. He’s OK, though.”

What Carroll meant: So, your heart jumped into your throat when you saw him limping off toward the locker room? Well, think how I felt considering all the injury drama of his first season here. But he’s OK. Exhale, everyone.

Reporter: The team called the allegations against Marshawn Lynch “bogus.” Can you give us any insight into why the team feels that way?

What Carroll said: “I’m just going along with the statement that we made for right now. Just support whatever the statement was from the club.”

What Carroll meant: What more do you want? We used the word “bogus” in a team press release. Ever seen another team do that? Nothing about gathering facts or due process. Can’t we just let “bogus” kind of speak for itself?

Reporter: What are you telling the team right now?

What Carroll said: “It’s not a topic for us right now. We’re not talking about it.”

What Carroll meant: Just because you guys are talking about it doesn’t mean we’re talking about it. Our team meetings do not begin with the stories in the paper or the discussions on local radio. And if Lynch was, for instance, asleep at the team hotel at the time of the alleged incident, what exactly are we supposed to talk to the team about?

Reporter: Where do things stand in the competition at backup quarterback between Tarvaris Jackson and Terrelle Pryor?

What Carroll said: “It’s too early to make any kind of statements. We just have a quarter under their belts so far or whatever. I thought that both guys performed well. I thought they both understood what was going on. They were very aware of the situations. They were comfortable playing.”

What Carroll meant: No decisions have been made. Nobody has played their way into – or out of – the job. Yet.

What Carroll said (continued): “They played with different lines so it was a little bit different on what was going on up front. I thought they both showed strengths.”

What Carroll meant (continued): Everybody saw what happened, right? The protection wasn’t perfect for Jackson, but he had eons in comparison to the fire drill that Pryor was running behind the line.

What Carroll said (continued): “Tarvaris has been really just steady as can be for quite some time. He has really been efficient. He had a great preseason last year. He’s off to a really good start here. We have a lot more to learn about Terrelle because we don’t know as much about him. He has had a great offseason with us. It has been really fun to have him. He’s such a fantastic athlete, and he competes so hard at trying to win this job. He’s off to a really good, very encouraging start right now.”

What Carroll meant (continued): Jackson is more proven, Pryor has more potential. We’ll spend this month trying to measure which would be more valuable to this team where it sits right now.