Sunken Seahawks hold team meeting. Duane Brown, Bobby Wagner, Russell Wilson speak loudest

In their recent past, whenever the Seahawks needed a leader to speak up and even rip into teammates, they relied on Doug Baldwin and Kam Chancellor.

Those souls of those championship teams are gone, of course, retired.

In their wake: the fallen, 2021 Seahawks.

They held a team meeting Monday. It came a day after their seventh loss in 10 games, yet another home defeat they felt they should have won, 23-13 to the Arizona Cardinals.

Which veterans on this Seahawks team spoke most forcefully to get this fixed?

Bobby Wagner, Russell Wilson — and, in a big way, 36-year-old Duane Brown.

“Bobby continues to have an extraordinary voice for our team. Guys really look up to him and really count on him. They always count on him to come through,” coach Pete Carroll said Monday following the meeting of his last-place team. “We’ve always been able to count him when we need a kick in the pants or a direction from the players’ aspect of it.

“Russ is always involved there, with the leadership of it.

“But the guy who’s got a really big voice is Duane Brown.”

Carroll said the 14th-year left tackle had one of “his best” games Sunday against Arizona, while playing at less than full health.

Brown had a groin injury that caused him to leave the previous game, Seattle’s 17-0 loss at Green Bay. Brown allowed his seventh sack in nine games that day against the Packers. That’s more than the Pro Bowl veteran has allowed in seasons.

Brown was back to his stalwart, stonewalling ways against nine-sack man Markus Golden and the Cardinals’ dangerous pass rush. Arizona sacked Wilson four times, with Golden getting one. But all four were off the edge opposite Brown on the left.

When asked by The News Tribune outside the locker room Sunday following the loss how healthy he was, Brown said “good enough. Good enough.”

Playing hurt gained Brown another point of leadership inside Seattle’s locker room. That’s on top of the many Brown has compiled since arriving in a trade from Houston during the 2017 season.

Another point came Monday in the meeting — through what Brown said, and by what his coach said to the players about Brown.

“I was really fired up how he just performed really well protecting the passer, and setting and doing some exciting things to see,” Carroll said. “And I made a point to the team about it: ‘If a guy who’s been around this long can get better and play one of his better games, so can you.’

“He does everything by the hard-work way. He is going to push and drive in every way that he can. And I was really fired up about him, because he was really sharp. ...

“That allows him, even more so, again, to continue to be the voice and be a real stud for our club.”

Seattle’s best blocker on an iffy offensive line “held in” during August. He showed up to the team facility but refused to practice entering the final year of his contract. He was seeking to forge a new deal. He told the Seahawks in the spring he wants to play past his 37th birthday in 2022, and for Seattle.

The team put him off. They wanted to see how he got through his 14th season, this season, first.

They got him back on the field for the opening game at Indianapolis Sept. 12 by what Brown called “a compromise,” adding a void year to his contract. That gave him an additional $2 million for this season.

With all the losing, who knows what the future holds for the team and its oldest, most expensive players? Is a rebuild coming? What Carroll and general manager John Schneider planned to do with Brown, Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs (who also held in entering the final year of his contract) and others in September might be changing as the losses — and obvious need for changes — pile up.

Brown said Sunday once this season began he hasn’t thought about any of that, or his future beyond this year.

“Not at all, man. Not at all,” he said. “Once everything got settled and I signed to do my job to play, that’s all I worry about, is to playing. I owe that to myself. I owe that to my guys. “I can’t worry about anything beyond this year.

“I can’t worry about anything past next week.”

This next week brings Montez Sweat and another dangerous, and younger, pass rush with Washington (4-6), in a Monday night game in suburban D.C.

“I’m trying to go out and compete and be the best player I can be week to week. That’s all I’m focused on, man,” Brown said. “I don’t worry about nothing else.”

That, and forcefully leading these Seahawks in their team meeting Monday.

“We are calling on our guys a lot. We are hearing from our guys, a lot. But I thought today it was particularly clear,” Carroll said.

“It was obvious, and pretty impressive.

“It was interesting to hear. The guys got a chance to speak up a little bit. Some of the leaders had the opportunity to kind of make sure that everyone was on the same page. This is to reinforce to the team we are playing together and we are going to go through the challenges we are facing together, and to come through in really good fashion we need to be on it, and we don’t have a moment to waste, we’ve got to maximize every opportunity to be our best, and on and on and on.

“It was really impressive.

“And so, where we is, we’ve got a challenge that we are facing that we’ve got to turn. And we’ve got to turn this thing as fast as we can.”

Carroll said during the meeting “really, everybody was really accountable, and did a nice job in owning it and being responsive to the change, too.

“How positive can it be? I don’t know, after this. But guys are really turning to getting things right and getting better this week.”