Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer moved from the sideline to the coaches' box this season, a move that he and Pete Carroll have both said has been a positive change.

The only potential negative Schottenheimer could see coming from that switch would be that, if the communication between him and Russell Wilson went out, he wouldn't be able to call plays or relay them to Wilson. Then again, that wouldn't be that big of an issue, so good is Wilson's grasp of the offense.

"If that did happen, obviously Russ would take it and go, and we wouldn't miss a beat," Schottenheimer said.

From his command of the offense to his accuracy to his absurd deep ball, Wilson has been dialed in in just about every element of his game so far this season. It's early, but Wilson leads the NFL in touchdown passes, completion percentage and passer rating, and he also has a loaded group of pass-catchers to throw to, led by receivers Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf and David Moore, and tight ends Greg Olsen and Will Dissly. As a result, he is now, more than ever, being talked about as an MVP candidate.

And of course if you talk Wilson and MVP, somebody is sure to point out that, for all the great seasons he has had, Wilson has never received an MVP vote—though it's worth remembering football MVP voters only submit a single name, not a ranked list of players as is the case of other sport, making it a lot harder to get a vote in a season where one quarterback has a great season on a top-seeded team, such as Patrick Mahomes in 2018 or Lamar Jackson last year.

Wilson, however, isn't that worried about this being the year he gets a vote or two. He was to have a season worthy of winning the award.

"I don't want a vote. More importantly, I want to win," Wilson said. "Obviously MVP is a special award, it's the best football players in the world, so many great guys. I think about guys like Lamar (Jackson) last year, he was unbelievable last year, such a great player. Guys like Patrick Mahomes, and some other greats that still play this game in Tom (Brady) and Drew (Brees). For me, I want to be regarded as one of the best to ever play this game, and it's part of the process."

Wilson hasn't been shy about saying he wants to be one of the greats, and winning an MVP award or two is part of that, but a big part of why he's interested in the award is because to win it, the Seahawks would have to have a very successful season. Yes, Wilson is being talked about as an MVP frontrunner because of his gaudy statistics, but also because people recognize that the 2-0 Seahawks look like one of the best teams in the NFC. In recent years, the MVP award has almost always gone not just to a quarterback, but to a quarterback whose team is a division champ and one of the top two seeds in its conference. So if Wilson is still in the MVP discussion by the end of this season, that won't just mean that he had a good year, individually, but that the Seahawks probably won an NFC West title.

"Hopefully I can win enough games and do enough special things as a team to be able to do that," he said. "It's a team award, really, in terms of the MVP. It's really a special award because everybody's involved in it, and hopefully I can be a part of that and hopefully we can be a part of that as team."

Schottenheimer, who is in his third season with the Seahawks, has coached a lot of really good quarterbacks in his career, including Brees early in his career in San Diego, Philip Rivers, Brett Favre and Andrew Luck, but he said Thursday he's never seen a quarterback quite as dialed in as Wilson is now.

"He's so comfortable," Schottenheimer said. "It starts with his work ethic. The guy is a non-stop worker. Sometimes that doesn't get talked about enough. The guy is a tireless worker with his preparation in the classroom. The way he takes care of his body, the way he studies film and is always looking at ideas and studying things is amazing. He's playing terrific right now. I'm proud of him."