When he became a free agent in 2019, Phillip Dorsett II considered signing with the Seahawks before eventually re-signing with New England.
Given a second chance to make that decision, Dorsett decided to head to Seattle for the 2020 season.
"I could have come (to Seattle) last year, and I chose the stay in New England, but I didn't want to make that mistake again." Dorsett said on a video press conference with Seattle-area media.
That isn't to say Dorsett views his time in New England negatively—after all, he points out, he played in two Super Bowls and won one with the Patriots and also learned a lot about the game while there—but rather that he thinks the Seahawks will be a good fit him for a number of reasons.
"I just felt like it was the right fit," said Dorsett, who spent the first three years of his career in Indianapolis, where Brian Schottenheimer was the quarterbacks coach for two of those seasons. "Obviously with Schotty being there, and then brining in (senior offensive assistant Sanjay Lal), I was familiar with a lot of guys on the staff. I felt like this is the right offense for me. Obviously Russell (Wilson), he's a great quarterback. The way he plays quarterback, the way this offense is, it fits my skillset."
A big part of that skillset is Dorsett's blazing speed—he ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in 2015—and it isn't lost on Seattle's new receiver that Wilson throws one of the best deep balls in the game.
"Absolutely, it was definitely something I'm aware of," he said. "I'm a student of the game, so I'm always watching football. Whether I'm studying it or if I'm on NFL Network or ESPN, I'm always watching. So you see it, you see it on display every weekend. It's the perfect deep ball. He has the arm strength and the touch to get it anywhere, so I would say definitely it was one of those things that attracted me to Seattle."
But as much as the Seahawks hope to take advantage of Dorsett's speed down the field, he's also out to show he is a complete receiver, and the former first-round pick feels like he's still growing as a receiver even as he heads into his sixth season.
"Honestly, the way I work, the way I learn, I feel like I've been getting better every year," he said. "Obviously, this is the third team that I'm on, and I feel like it can be my best year… I think I've been getting better every year."
And in Seattle, Dorsett wants to be another versatile receiver who can be a threat in a number of different situations.
"They got a lot of guys that can come in and can play, and a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things," he said. "Obviously I can be an added piece, a guy that can just go out here that can run the short routes, run deep routes, run after the catch, and then blocking. I don't have a limit to what I feel like I can do. I feel like I can help any way, whatever they want me to do, I'll be there to help."
And like everyone else in the NFL, Dorsett is having to prepare for the 2020 season while away from the team—in his case in Florida with his sister, Briana Dorsett-Moore, who is a bodybuilder and certified personal trainer. As for learning the playbook and building chemistry with Wilson and the rest of the offense, that has to happen virtually.
"It's just regular communication," he said. "We've got each other's phone numbers, we Zoom as much as we can. We can FaceTime, we can text. It's unfortunate right now we can't meet up and actually go through drills on the field, but that's when everything just has to be mental. This game is a big part mental too, so right now, honestly, the physical part you have to deal with on your own, but the mental part is something that you have to own it a lot. It's tough, but at the end of the day, you've got to take accountability and you've got to do it."
