KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) -Charlie Frye fidgeted. He spun the ball between his hands. He pantomimed a throwing motion, complete with a hip turn and follow through.
All this, while quarterbacks Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace ran plays he’d never seen, in a place in which he knows almost no one.
When he finally got the chance to join his new Seattle Seahawks teammates in a huddle, Frye didn’t even get to run their plays. He peered up to read diagrammed schemes of the Arizona Cardinals, the Seahawks’ opponent this week. A coach was holding those up from the pages of a three-ring binder for 11 practice squad prospects and reserves.
From NFL starter to scout team … in 48 hours.
“It is a little shocking,” Frye said, still appearing stunned after his first practice since the Cleveland Browns traded their starting quarterback to the Seahawks for a sixth-round draft pick.
Since the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, no quarterback had ever started an opener and been traded before Week 2.
“It’s never happened? Really?” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.
As Frye said, “There is a first time for everything.”
Seattle’s Gil Haskell is the Frye’s fifth offensive coordinator since 2004, his senior season at Akron.
“I’m going to have a pretty balanced football IQ. There isn’t an offense that I won’t have at least a little bit of experience in,” the 24-year-old Frye joked.
“I’m just trying to find the positives. That’s just the way I am. Coming out here, being with coach Holmgren and his track record with quarterbacks, and being with Matt and Seneca, I think it’s going to be a positive situation for me.”
Eventually, perhaps. But not immediately.
It’s going to take weeks just for Frye to learn Seattle’s plays. When he does, Hasselbeck will still be starting. And Wallace, who won both games when Hasselbeck was injured last season, will be the backup.
Before being benched – and traded – Frye was 4-for-10 with one interception and five sacks in less than one half of Cleveland’s embarrassing, 34-7 loss at home to Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Browns then decided Derek Anderson, now, and Brady Quinn, soon, was their answer at quarterback. Frye left Cleveland 6-13 as a starter.
“If I was him I would feel kind of bad about that whole deal,” Holmgren said. “He said, ‘I’m so excited to be there.’ I said, ‘Well, I appreciate that. But you are probably a little shocked, aren’t you?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah.’ And then we got down to it, how he really felt.
“I’ve been around quarterbacks a long time, and that would a hard one to deal with. We will bring him along. He’s a bright guy. And I think there is a little bit of a period here where he has to figure out what happened. And then once that’s happened, we’ll start teaching him our stuff.”
On Wednesday, quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn was showing Fyre the fundamentals of footwork in Holmgren’s intricate West Coast offense. Zorn also explained the plays Hasselbeck was running with the first-team offense. Zorn and Frye then stayed on the field running plays with four reserve receivers for 20 minutes after practice.
“I think it will be humbling for him at first. I know it is,” Zorn said.
Frye would say only of his Cleveland days, “I think when you put a lot of time in something and really dedicate yourself to something, you want to see the other side of it. But this is the NFL. Change happens all the time and you just have to take advantage of your opportunities.”
Frye did find one familiar face in Seattle. Safety Brian Russell played the previous two seasons in Cleveland.
“For him, I’m sure it’s awkward. Just crazy,” Russell said. “But this is probably a blessing in disguise for him.”
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