Get to know: Brady Russell and K'Von Wallace

2 former Eagles who are carving roles on the Seahawks: Seaside Joe 2003

The Seattle Seahawks gave us so much new ground to cover this offseason because of ownership’s decision to replace Pete Carroll’s vision with one more specific to John Schneider, including not just a first-time head coach, but also a re-imagined offense under Ryan Grubb, that I didn’t end up creating as many “origin story” newsletters as I had planned.

With the 2024 preseason thankfully over now, I have been able to key in on more Seahawks who necessitate a deeper dig into their pasts as football players, as well as people navigating through existence as professional athletes who also have families, and trauma, and chips on their shoulders.

Two easy decisions for players to zero in on for today’s origin stories: Tight end Brady Russell and safety K’Von Wallace.

The first will be free to all subscribers, the second will be a bonus article in the second half for paid members. It’s just $5 per month, while $55 will get you an entire year, meaning you’re already paid up through the 2025 preseason.

Neither Russell nor Wallace are “starters” as of yet, but both have proven worthy of bigger roles, key roles, heading into the 2024 season. That’s where they’re going, this is where they’re coming from:

TE Brady Russell

In a lot of ways, Brady Russell is just Jake Bobo, if he had a less eye-catching name, played tight end, and wasn’t an immediate undrafted signing by Seattle. Otherwise, both seem to have the exact same role: They’ve become surprisingly solid depth at deep positions, they excel in areas like effort and special teams, and figure to be with the team at least until the end of their undrafted rookie contracts. How did Russell’s unlikely story unfold?

Russell was a two-star recruit out of Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins*, CO in 2017, but isn’t even listed by 247 as a tight end, instead ranking as the 156th-best defensive end in the country. He went to Colorado as a walk-on after deciding he’d rather prove himself at a bigger school than get a full ride at a Division II program, Russell told the Coloradoan in 2018 after earning a scholoarship from the Buffs:

“I was like ‘I need to do this and prove it to myself,’” Russell said. “I really wanted to come in and show them what I could do early on because a lot of people didn’t believe in me to be a Power 5 player out of high school.”

Colorado’s coach at the time, Mike MacIntyre, told the newspaper that Russell proved to be a “really, really good football player” who had settled in at tight end and was essential on special teams.

*If you’re a women’s soccer fan and follow the Seattle Reign FC, the team just traded for Jaelin Howell, who was one of Russell’s classmates at Fossil Ridge; but it doesn’t stop there because Howell’s father John Howell played for the Seahawks from 2005-2006, fittingly as a special teamer

Russell had proven more as a defensive end than as a tight end in high school, so it seems as though as hard as he and his high school coaches tried to convince colleges to take a chance on him, none liked him enough as a pass rusher to pull the trigger and he didn’t have much experience at tight end yet. High school coach Zak Bigelow, who had previously coached at Oregon State, was adament that Russell was better than some of the scholarship players he knew on the Beavers. “I knew he could play in the Pac-12.”

He took being on the scout team very seriously a la “Rudy” and was named as the offensive Scout Player of the Year as a true freshman, which expedited his opportunity to get a scholarship from the Buffs in 2018.

“Even on scout team, there will be a lot of guys that are taking reps off or not going very hard,'' Russell said. "I wanted to take advantage of that whole year. I’m going against first-string Division I football players every single day on scout team. “It’s hard when you know you’re not going on the field for at least another year, to go in and perform every day. The mindset I had to have was to stay hungry.”

So that’s how Brady Russell overcame the odds to go from a recruit who never would have been given a second look by any school as a tight end (too small to play DE in the NCAA, but too inexperienced to be taken seriously at any other position) to playing and often starting in the Pac-12. But that story is still not as remarkable as Russell continuing that ride into the NFL despite not being that notable of a tight end in college.

If you want to frame Russell’s career in the most favorable way possible, you could say that he led Colorado in catches and yards in 2021, which is true. But by that point, the Buffs were among the very worst teams in the country and 25 catches for 307 yards is not a lot. In five seasons as a tight end, Russell finished with 78 catches for 799 yards and three touchdowns.

Compare that to Jack Westover: As the fourth or fifth option at Washington, Westover still had 775 yards and five touchdowns in his last two seasons alone.

I don’t say that to imply that Russell sucks at football. As I said, Colorado was horrible and Russell had five different head coaches in five years (two interims) and he still didn’t even get to meet Deion! What I’m saying is that the NFL doesn’t typically take a second look at a player like Russell; someone who wasn’t productive, wasn’t getting any recognition outside of the awards he won from his own school (like the “Buffalo Heart Award” in 2022), and he’s not an exceptional athlete.

Teams will take that chance if you’re just a ridiculous athlete. A few years ago, the Rams spent a fourth round pick on Jacob Harris despite him only very recently picking up football because he ran a 4.39 at 6’5, 220. If Harris had more of what Russell had, he might have been a good pick. If Russell had the size, athleticism of Harris, he would have been a first round pick.

But even though I can find an NFL.com draft profile written by Lance Zierlein for almost every player in the league, there wasn’t one created for Brady Russell.

He left Colorado without much production or having experienced many wins (1-11 during his senior season) and according to NFL Draft Buzz, he’s 21st percentile for height, 45th percentile for weight, 57th percentile for 40 (4.75), and really didn’t post one above-average measurable among tight ends at his Colorado pro day.

After going undrafted in 2023, Russell’s first call was from the San Francisco 49ers and he thought he had a deal in place, but then the Eagles swooped in and offered him too much money to say no. (A year later, George Kittle would name Russell as the MVP of the ‘Tight End University’ he helps run with Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen based on his effort and how he treated everyone there.) So Philadelphia landed Russell initially, but then when they cut him after training camp and put him on the practice squad, it gave the Seahawks to steal him last September because they were willing to give him a spot on the 53.

Despite not being with the team for the first two games, Russell finished second in special teams snaps behind only Nick Bellore.

Yet going into this year’s camp, Russell was still overlooked, as most of us were talking about Noah Fant, Pharaoh Brown, A.J. Barner, and then Westover as the fourth tight end. Now we might see Russell STARTING against the Broncos in Week 1. Fant has a “lower leg” injury, Brown has a foot injury, Westover’s been sidelined too and even before that was behind Russell on the depth chart anyway.

Russell’s worst case scenario is that he is “only” the third tight end when Fant and Brown are healthy, his best case scenario is that he surpasses Brown on the depth chart and gets the second-most snaps at the position. If there’s any chance that Russell wouldn’t have a role on the Seahawks this year, then we’ve all been lied to and I don’t think that’s what’s happening.

Now that doesn’t mean we’re going to see a lot of Brady Russell this year. The Seahawks have four receivers worthy of attention, including Bobo; they have Noah Fant, who presumably returned to Seattle in part because he was told he’d have a bigger role; Brown is described as a “blocking” tight end, but had more yards than Will Dissly last season; what about Laviska Shenault?; and Ryan Grubb’s offense in the past has called for a lot of screens, so we must allocate quite a few passes to running backs.

But Russell has proven his value in a multitude of ways that go beyond catching the football, as in the preseason he’s helped spring big runs as a blocker and is a common sight to see running down the field in position for a tackle on kicks and punts. Mike Macdonald went as far as to say that Russell “carries the torch for us on special teams”, signaling that he’ll replace Bellore as the captain there.

And as noted, he could be needed as a tight end as soon as Week 1 against his home state team.

This could be the second time the Eagles regret letting a Russell go to the Seahawks.

For the second half of today’s article, I’m going to do an origin story just like this one about Russell, but for Seahawks safety K’Von Wallace. The second half is for Regular Joes subscribers, so consider signing up today if you’re not in the club for more bonus content like this and to learn the Wallace’s history prior to signing with the Seahawks as a free agent this year.

K’Von Wallace grew up in an environment in which he didn’t always have hot water or power, but with a single mother who went back to get a college degree to motivate him to be the first male in her family to graduate from high school and to get a college education, he’s learned valuable lessons that go far beyond what you can find on a football field. Wallace was a captain for the Seahawks in the preseason and could have a breakout season with Mike Macdonald as his coach.

S K’Von Wallace

We haven’t said much about Wallace in camp or preseason, but not for lack of evidence that he’s been a good signing. In fact, the Seahawks chose Wallace as a captain for last week’s preseason game against the Titans, something he thanked Macdonald for, to which the coach assured him, “Hell yeah, you earned it.”