Yes, there is always plenty of chatter about our perennial Super Bowl hopefuls. But I also find that there is always some angle to Seahawks coverage that just doesn’t seem to get enough airplay. This column is dedicated to that “elephant in the locker room.”
OMG.
What an awful experience it is to watch your favorite NFL team lose a game.
How terrible it is to watch your QB throw a wide-open scamper-gleefully-to-the-endzone pick-6.
Painful to watch a 4th-Q comeback fizzle when your star rookie receiver puts the ball on the ground, and to watch it picked up for another defensive TD, leaving the final score at that distasteful 14-point margin resulting from those instant-turnover TDs.
And gosh: after so much Russell Wilson MVP-race talk this year, watching him complete less than 50% of his passes and finish the game with a merely human 65.2 QBR just sucked.
Waaaaaaaahhhhhh.
We are so frigging spoiled.
Courtesy of NFL.com, we should remember what Russell Wilson accomplished in his first 7 complete seasons:
- Russell Wilson has the most wins by a quarterback in his first seven seasons in NFL history (75).
- Wilson is one of five quarterbacks with 75 or more wins in any seven-season span of a career.
- Russell Wilson has the 2nd-highest passing touchdown percentage (6%) in the Super Bowl era (minimum 3,000 attempts). Out of 3,291 attempts, Russell has thrown 196 touchdowns. His most productive year came in 2018, where he had a touchdown percentage of 8.2%
- Russell Wilson has the 2nd-highest career passer rating (100.3) in NFL history. The only player to top Wilson is Aaron Rodgers who has a career passer rating of 103.1.
- Russell Wilson is tied for the most 4th-quarter comebacks (21) and game-winning drives (27) since entering the league in 2012, including postseason.
- Russell Wilson has the highest 4th-quarter passer rating (109.6) since 1991 among quarterbacks with 500 or more attempts.
- The Seahawks have a +269 point differential in the fourth quarter since 2012, the best in the NFL
Russell Wilson has never missed a game due to injury or benching. He is still on a pace this season to challenge NFL records for single-season passer rating and fewest interceptions thrown.
And courtesy of Bleacher Report, we can remember some of Wilson’s rookie-season achievements:
- Russell Wilson was so good throwing the ball that he shattered Ben Roethlisberger’s rookie record for passer rating thanks to his pristine 100 rating.
- If you had guessed before the season that Russell Wilson, a third-round pick, would tie for a spot in the NFL record books next to Peyton Manning, you need to stop reading and go play the lottery.
- His 385 yards through the air broke a rookie record for the most passing yardage in a playoff game [Atlanta, in a season-ending loss], previously set by the Washington Redskins’ Sammy Baugh in 1937 with 335 yards.
- Wilson only threw 10 interceptions in 16 games… the NFL rookie record for pass-to-interception differential.
So, yeah… lick our wounds, and count our lucky stars. As I wrote almost precisely 4 years ago:
Pay attention to your home-town QB and what he’s up to, and why. Remember, he’s a superstar now, and getting paid like one. He’s trying to earn that dough, not be some pansy paycheck-protector who bails out at the first sign of danger to his precious little self, or some passer with a fragile ego whose confidence is completely blown when he fumbles or throws an interception.
So, yeah… instead of watching Russell Wilson on a Pete Carroll-coached team, we could be watching RG3 ride the bench under a variety of coaches.
We could be watching Kaepernick disintegrate under Tomsula.
We could be watching Tannehill throw practice-squad tantrums in dysfunctional and coachless Miami.
We could be watching Jay Cutler on a John Fox-coached team. Say no more.
We could even be watching Peyton Manning on a Fox-coached team… but, remember, we did that in Super Bowl XLVIII.
We could be scratching our heads over the decisions of Eli Manning under the aging Tom Coughlin.
We could be watching Rivers flail away under Pick-a-Coach.
We could be watching Matt Schaub crumble under Gary Kubiak. Oh… but we can’t, because Schaub, well, isn’t playing anymore.
Yes, the options are virtually endless. And painful.
So let’s face it: whatever the outcome this week, enjoy the heck out of the Wilson and Carroll Show, and quit wringing your hands.
