Russell Wilson ranked 139th best player in NFL by MMQB. My brain just broke.
Russell Wilson was ranked the 139th best player and the 11th best quarterback in the league by Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback. We take exception to this ranking.
Russell Wilson 139th among all players? Wilson 11th among quarterbacks? Where to start with this ranking? Did MMQB lose an outlandish bet? Was someone hitting the Nyquil too hard from a summer cold, and entered an extra digit? Is this a fantastic “Let’s troll the 12s” job? Or did someone actually take a long serious look at the players in the NFL and decide there are 138 better players in the NFL than Russell Wilson? See for yourself; I’m not making this up.
Let’s go after the low-hanging fruit first. Here’s a quick look at the players ranked ahead of Wilson.
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Brandin Cooks. Cooks has back-to-back seasons with 1,100 yards receiving, at least eight touchdowns and a 65 percent catch rate. He ranked ninth for 2016 in receiving yards per game and touchdowns. Pretty good. Now factor in he was with the New Orleans Saints. They’ve got this guy Drew Brees. You may have heard of him. Led the league in passing yards. Cooks didn’t lead his own team in receptions or touchdown receptions. He’s a fine player and deserves his ranking of 138th. Probably deserves a higher ranking, in fact. But this guy is better than Russell Wilson???
I won’t bother going in-depth through the other random players ranked ahead of Wilson. They’re all fine players, to be sure. But Todd Gurley? One excellent season, one lousy season Gurley? The single season Pro Bowler Jamie Collins, the player so good the New England Patriots traded him for couple of pastrami and rye sandwiches in the middle of the season? Give me a break.
Russell Wilson is worse than these 11 quarterbacks, allegedly
One good thing about the MMQB list is you can sort it by position or team. You can also review the rankings from 400 all the way up to numero uno. So here we have the quarterback rankings, from the Superbowl Champ Tom Brady all the way down to Alex Smith. If your quarterback is missing, remember this isn’t a ranking of all of them. Just the top 400 players in the league, and therefore the quarterbacks that are in the top 400.
From the MMQB Top 400:
"1 Tom Brady QB New England Patriots 6 Aaron Rodgers QB Green Bay Packers 16 Ben Roethlisberger QB Pittsburgh Steelers 28 Matt Ryan QB Atlanta Falcons 30 Andrew Luck QB Indianapolis Colts 37 Drew Brees QB New Orleans Saints 88 Philip Rivers QB Los Angeles Chargers 104 Eli Manning QB New York Giants 117 Matthew Stafford QB Detroit Lions 124 Derek Carr QB Oakland Raiders 136 Joe Flacco QB Baltimore Ravens 139 Russell Wilson QB Seattle Seahawks 155 Carson Palmer QB Arizona Cardinals 162 Cam Newton QB Carolina Panthers 164 Jameis Winston QB Tampa Bay Buccaneers 202 Carson Wentz QB Philadelphia Eagles 223 Dak Prescott QB Dallas Cowboys 249 Sam Bradford QB Minnesota Vikings 261 Kirk Cousins QB Washington 297 Marcus Mariota QB Tennessee Titans 338 Andy Dalton QB Cincinnati Bengals 347 Ryan Tannehill QB Miami Dolphins 372 Alex Smith QB Kansas City Chiefs"