There’s no way around it; Russell Wilson is having the worst season of his career. That doesn’t mean the Seahawks should move on from the best quarterback in franchise history. He’ll be back, and better than ever.
No one can reasonably defend the season Russell Wilson has had this year. While there are literally a dozen teams that would make some sweet trade offers for him, by his standards, it’s been a dismal year. With two games left, he’ll likely set career lows in almost every category. Sure, he missed three games (and should have sat out at least two more), but he simply isn’t playing anything like Mr. Unlimited. Russ has led 24 comebacks and 31 game-winning drives in his Seahawks career. None have come this season.
Okay, so I’m pretty sure we can all agree it hasn’t been the best year for Russell Wilson, right? His poor season extends far past the awful Packers game. Even as bad as it’s been, he still ranks in the top ten in passer rating, yards per completion and attempt, and interception rate, among other categories. Even with just 18 touchdown passes, he ranks 12th in TD percentage. Let me correct a statement I made above: there are at least 20 teams who’d rather have Russell Wilson under center than the guy they have now.
Seahawks need Russell Wilson to get his groove back
The interwebs are full of trade rumors and destinations for Russ. We here at 12thManRising have, at last count, 236 articles ourselves. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But there are more than a few trade suggestions, as you can see here (thanks Carson) and here (thanks Lee) and – well, you get the picture.
The thing is, Wilson isn’t exactly the first star quarterback to see his game slip. Allow me to give you a few comparisons. And there are more than you may have imagined. As you might expect, you won’t find players like Colt McCoy or Nick Foles on the list. They were good enough to beat the Seahawks this year, but they had exactly established themselves as at the top of the league at any point in their career – a Super Bowl win notwithstanding.
Seahawks Russell Wilson isn’t the first great QB to have a bad year
Let’s take look at a QB who everyone acknowledges is one of the best ever – even if he’s a knucklehead. That would be Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has had not one, but two career slumps. From 2009-2014 he was arguably the best QB in the league. His passer rating never dipped below 101.2, while his QBR was never below 61.6. Even that, recorded in 2013, was an aberration as he bounced back to a QBR of 78.3 in 2014. That was just behind the league leader, Tony Romo’s 79.7. Rodgers was still named All-Pro that year, deservedly so.
But the following year, 2015, Rodgers dropped off again in virtually every category. He threw seven fewer TDs and three more interceptions. He threw for 560 fewer yards, 44 fewer first downs, and had the worst completion percentage of his career (assuming you discount his first two years, in which he attempted a total of 31 passes). Rodgers’ QBR dropped to 60.0. He was 32 years old, and the whispers started. “Is the guy too old? Maybe we should take a look at the draft.”
Of course, Rodgers bounced back with a spectacular season in 2016. He led the NFL with 40 touchdown passes, accounted for a career-high 226 first downs, and saw his QBR jump up to 72.4. But the following year he was injured and played in just seven games. He threw six picks, the highest rate of his career, and began a three-year slide in QBR, all the way to 52.5 in 2019. That placed him 20th in the league. Yep, he was definitely done.
Except he wasn’t, as we all know. Last season, Rodgers again led the league in touchdowns. Even more remarkably, he tossed only five interceptions while compiling 48 touchdowns. He also led the league in completion percentage, passer rating, touchdown and interception rate, yards per attempt, and naturally QBR. His numbers aren’t too far off the mark this season, either.
Don’t worry, there are even more QBs that had years like Wilson
Rodgers is hardly the only great quarterback to have a bad season in the midst of an outstanding career. Let’s look at a few stat lines, shall we? These are all for a minimum of 14 games
Comp % TD INT Passer rating
59.9 18 10 87.9
56.0 24 22 76.9
60.5 25 11 87.3
Those stats belong to Joe Montana 1988, Dan Marino 1989, and Tom Brady 2013. Brady’s QBR was 63.1, by the way. QBR wasn’t as much as a twinkle in the eye of NFL statisticians in the days of Montana and Marino. But you get the picture. Collectively, those three Hall of Famers played another 23 seasons between them, with Brady likely to play until the league has a team on Mars.
So what does this all have to do with Russell Wilson? See, I didn’t forget this was about the DangeRuss one. Well, it’s simple. All three teams (four, including the Packers) had faith that their All-World QBs would get their game back. Yeah, San Francisco had Steve Young ready and New England had Garapolo waiting in the wings. But neither team pulled the trigger after one tough year.
Russell Wilson has proven he’s in the company of the NFL’s all-time greats. It’s been a bad season, no way around it, at least by the standards he’s set. That doesn’t justify the Seahawks making an even worse mistake and trading away a quarterback with a lot of great years ahead of him. Yes, we’ll keep writing about possible trades, because that’s what people are talking about. That doesn’t mean a trade is the right thing to do.