Russell Wilson Is As Great As They Come

Russell Wilson is a great young quarterback. Let me rephrase that, Russell Wilson is great quarter back, young or old, period. His performance last night was first class from top to bottom. Wilson and the Seahawks embarrassed the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football in front of the entire nation, and Wilson was the star of the show. 

The former Wisconsin Badger has either an A or A+ rating in everything you’d want in your franchise quarterback. Intelligence A+, check. Arm and throwing ability from the pocket, A, check. The new age quarterback ability to avoid the rush and use his feet to make plays, A+, check. And probably the most underrated attribute in the NFL, the ability to scramble and avoid taking season altering hits, A+, check. That final attribute is something Robert Griffin III and other rushing quarterbacks lack, because they all take unnecessary punishment once they leave the pocket. 

Every time I watch RG3 or Colin Kaepernick or another scrambling quarterback take a big hit, one saying comes to mind: Quitting, and quitting while you are ahead is not the same thing. Wilson only gets hit on sacks, because once he leaves the pocket he heads straight for the sidelines and gets as many yards as he can before taking a huge hit. He’s a sharp kid.

So again, Wilson has everything a team needs in a quarterback in order for the team to be successful. The man is motivated, he is a leader, and he gets better every game. And to think, so many teams passed up the opportunity to draft him.

Go back to the 2012 NFL Draft and look at the teams that passed on Russell Wilson, you can’t help but have a chuckle at the expense of the GM’s of those teams. Of course hindsight is always 20/20, and we can all play Monday-morning quarterback and year and half later, but it’s still astonishing that Russell Wilson was passed up mostly because he was only 5’11. 

The Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings all decided against picking Wilson. Just think about that, the Cardinals, Vikings and Browns, three teams that have not accomplished anything of substance in the NFL for a few years now. The Browns even picked Brandon Weeden over Wilson. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Browns management whiffed on that one.

Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and Vikings running back Adrian Peterson are going to have most of their hall of fame careers wasted because neither had a great quarterback for long enough to make use of their out of this world talents. 

Both the Cardinals and Vikings having amazing fan bases that have supported their teams while their front office people did not do enough to get their stars the quarterbacks they needed. The one time Larry Fitzgerald had great quarterback throwing him the ball, (Kurt Warner) he went to a Super Bowl. Adrian Peterson came within 9 yards of breaking the single season NFL rushing record last season.

Peterson accomplished this with opposing defenses knowing all they had to do was load the box against him because Christian Ponder was not a threat. If Adrian Peterson had a great quarterback last year, he may have rushed for 2500 yards; he was that amazing last season. A great quarterback opens up the door for others around them to also be great, and Wilson is that type of player. 

I may be in the minority with my next statement, but Russell Wilson is every bit the great quarterback that Andrew Luck is. Luck is phenomenal; there are shortcomings in his game. All the attributes I named earlier that Russell Wilson possesses, Andrew Luck does at well; they’re both that good. But the Russell Wilson detractors make absurd arguments against Wilson by saying he was gifted with a better team than Luck.

Russell Wilson definitely has the better team around him, that much is not debatable, but look at the divisions both him and Andrew Luck play in. The Indianapolis Colts play in a division where there are three teams currently under .500. The Colts have the equivalent of 3 bye-weeks every season because they have their own bye-week, plus they play the Jacksonville Jaguars twice. The Houston Texans have taken a major step back, and the Tennessee Titans have some good pieces but have not put it together as a good team since Jeff Fisher left. 

In Wilson’s division, the St. Louis Rams are the worst team in the NFC West. The Rams have beaten the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Houston Texans, and they throttled Andrew Luck’s Colts team 38-8. So Luck is beating up on bad teams while Russell Wilson’s team is 11-1, and has to play a resurgent Cardinals team, a decent Rams team, and a 49ers team that played in the Super Bowl last year. So the better team comparison holds no weight for me because Luck gets to play in a terrible division and beat up on non-contenders. 

Now, the Seahawks one loss this season did come at the hands of Andrew Luck and the Colts, and the Colts also beat up on the San Francisco 49ers so that has to be acknowledged. But that show Andrew Luck is phenomenal quarterback, not that Wilson is an inferior quarterback.  

When Luck and Wilson faced each other this season, both quarterbacks played well and had very similar numbers. Andrew Luck: 16 for 29, 229 yards and two touchdowns. Russell Wilson: 15 for 31, 210 yards and two touchdowns. They’re the same great quarterback in two different bodies. The only difference is Andrew Luck is taller, and from what I’ve seen the last two seasons, Wilson’s height has not played a factor in his ability. 

Russell Wilson deserves every bit of praise he gets because he has shown for two seasons he has the skills required to excel in the NFL. Pete Carroll looks like a genius for drafting him, and after the beating the Seahawks gave the Saints, Seattle looks like the NFC favorites to go to the Super Bowl. 

And at the heart of this team is the 5’11 third round pick that draft experts shunned, and NFL front office personnel passed on. Russell Wilson is getting the last laugh, and it is well deserved.