The Seattle Seahawks are preparing to welcome the NFC South winners, the Carolina Panthers, this weekend in the second of the Divisional weekend games.
While it is the two sides’ defenses who are sharing most of the national attention with Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett going as far as to say that he sees a lot of similarities in the oppositions defense to his own, but where the battle will be won is what quarterback can perform in the vital game. So this leads to the question.
Is Russell Wilson overrated or underrated?
A product of both NC State and then Wisconsin after his transfer to Wisconsin in the final year of his college career. He was later drafted in the third round by the Seattle Seahawks with the 76th overall draft pick, he is now nearing the end of his third NFL season.
In these three seasons Wilson has 76 regular season touchdowns to his name, with 20 coming in the last 16 games half of the amount of touchdowns that touchdown leader for the season Andrew Luck has another third year professional. The Seattle quarterback is the 16th ranked quarterback for passing touchdowns, so he does make an impact in the passing game but he is not a massive factor. Plus he can boast a solid 9,950 yards through the air over the last three seasons. However what he adds that many quarterbacks don’t successfully have, is a reliable rushing game, he can boast 6 touchdowns via the running game with an impressive 849 yards in just 118 attempts averaging 7.2 yards per carry. To put into context he is 16th in the league for rushing yards and is the only quarterback in the top 25 players in terms of rushing yards, rival and fellow rushing quarterback Colin Kaepernick is 27th in terms of yards. He has 11 rushing touchdowns throughout his career so far.
What is also very impressive about Russell Wilson is his ability to win football games when it matters. He does not appear to feel the nerves that some very good quarterbacks have choked on past and present. This is a man who regardless of his own personal stats, is able to do what is the most important thing in all of football. Win football games, what more could you want from your franchise quarterback?
He is able to win from whatever position with nine fourth quarter comebacks so far in his career and can even boast an impressive 14 game winning drives. This all comes down to the fact he is a ‘smart’ quarterback as the buzzword is these days. As smart quarterbacks go he is certainly up there with the smartest quarterbacks. From his smart passes to minimize the threat of throwing interceptions, the fact he is able to win games when it matters most and the fact he knows how far to push his body for sustainability. Evidence of this isn’t hard to find the majority of Wilson's intentionally running plays see him stretch out his arm for either the first down or the pylon and then quickly run out of bounds, preventing any chance of him taking a serious hit. His reasoning for this is easily understandable, especially when you look at the case of RG3 who ever since a stunning debut season, he has never really featured since successfully for the Redskins picking up injury after injury. Wilson knows to avoid this and does so while still getting results.
Also adding on to the point that he just wins football games regardless of the pressure, in just his second season Russell Wilson lifted the Lombardi Trophy as the Seattle Seahawks routed the Denver Broncos in last year’s Super Bowl.
It is not set in stone that Wilson is underrated however the arguments put forward by those who don’t rate him highly does have some logic to it. Many claim that the majority of his success comes because he is playing with the best defense in the league and one of the best defenses of all time. The Seahawks concede the least amount of yards per game with just 267 yards per game and with the NFL becoming more and more a passing league, having the best pass defense in the league is a major asset. For example Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons is undoubtedly a very talented quarterback, yet he is being forced to win shoot outs every week because the Atlanta defense concede touchdowns most drives. As a result, he ends up throwing more interceptions and falling short more often. Whereas, Wilson knows if the Seahawks post roughly around 25 points they are in with a good chance of winning the game, because not many teams can score that many points against this defense when they are in full swing. In simple terms all Wilson has to do, some argue, is run the clock and not turn over the ball.
This argument is further aided by the fact that the Seahawks have one very special man on their offense ‘The Beast’ Marshawn Lynch. One of the top running backs in the league today carries a huge portion of the Seahawks offense. In fact they have the most rushing yards in the entire league with 2,762 yards. However Wilson does chip in with 849 rushing yards of his own. Lynch is certainly the focus point of the Seattle offense and some people claim that with a running game as effective as theirs again Wilson has less to do. Furthermore the season before he was drafted in the 3rd round the Seahawks had actually gone 11-5 that year, so he was inheriting a winning side.
The reality is however you do not win the Super Bowl in your second season as a starting quarterback, if you are a poor quarterback. He throws touchdowns and rushes touchdowns, combining for 26 touchdowns this season. He is not an elite quarterback like your Tom Brady’s and Peyton Manning’s but Russell Wilson is for certain a good quarterback and is far too underrated within this league.
