The conversation surrounding Russell Wilson since he came into the league has always had a “but” attached to it. He won all these games, but he had a stellar defense. He led the team to a Super Bowl, but he had a great running game. Wilson has more comeback wins since 2012 than any quarterback except Matthew Stafford. Wilson led the league in touchdown passes last year. Wilson has also never thrown more than 11 interceptions in a season.
This guy deserves so much credit for the Seahawks’ success and I think he is finally being taken seriously as a quarterback.
Wilson has always been out of the best quarterback in the league conversation because of the perception he performed within the system of the team and was more of a backyard player than a real QB. Outside of the Pacific Northwest and some scattered Wilson fans around the U.S. he is considered good enough but not quite what you want in a quarterback.
With his performance against the Carolina Panthers he became one of only two quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to have a career QB rating more than 100. He is one of the two most efficient quarterbacks in the history of the NFL! The list is Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson—that is it. Wilson needs to be in the conversation for best player in the league right now.
Wilson is on pace to have the second-most-accurate season of his career. He is completing almost 67 percent of his passes; his career high is 68.1 percent, which he got in 2015. He is scoring touchdown at a ridiculous rate, too. This year he is throwing a touchdown pass on more than eight percent of his throws. When you look at the five QBs with more passing touchdowns than Russell Wilson this year, it’s Patrick Mahomes, Andrew Luck, Drew Brees, Jared Goff and Philip Rivers; only Mahomes throws touchdowns at a higher rate and he is having a historic season.
Wilson has thrown fewer interceptions than all of them except Brees this year. Wilson also has 10 completions of more than 40 yards, which is second in the league to Mahomes.
Did I also mention he has been sacked 11 more times than any of these guys?
What I am trying to say is that Wilson has fewer chances and worse blocking than most of if not all of these QBs, but he is still producing comparable numbers and he is excelling for Seattle this year. He is doing it with Doug Baldwin not producing anywhere close to what he normally does, and without his other top two options from last year. David Moore has stepped up and you can really see how much trust has developed between him and Wilson. In the fourth quarter of the Carolina game, Seattle was faced with a fourth down and three, and instead of playing it safe, Wilson floated a beautiful pass deep for Moore to fight through a PI and pull in one-handed in the end zone to tie the game. This game was a huge boost to Seattle’s playoff hopes and they go into the game next week against the 49ers with some momentum.
