Stop Lying About Russell Wilson. He is Still a Hall of Famer.

Russell Wilson is the most under-appreciated QB of our generation and has been set up by the league to fail since leaving Seattle. It sounds like I'm some sort of conspiracy theorist, until I back up my claims with data and perspective. Now, I will not be necessarily defending his play of recent seasons to the extent that he has been a great QB, because he hasn’t, but he hasn’t been the dumpsterfire that the media is trying to convince you of. You don’t have to even like the guy, but people like Tony Gonzalez and Richard Sherman going on National TV saying he has played himself out of the Hall of Fame, is the most ridiculous sentiment that one could make, and is the epitome of the media trying to steer a narrative.

To begin, I would like to simply go over the accolades of Wilson, just so we’re clear about his resume that will be sent to Canton Ohio. At the time of writing this, Wilson is 13th All-Time in touchdown passes, 4th All-Time in Passer Rating, 19th All-Time in Passing Yards, 20th All-Time in Completion %, 3rd All-Time in TD/INT ratio, 9th All-Time in 4th quarter comebacks, 3rd All-Time in QB rushing yards, and 13th All-Time in QB Rushing TD’s. Wilson is one of only four Quarterbacks in NFL History to pass for 4,000+ yards and rush for 500+ yards in a single season, and only one of 2 to do it twice. Wilson has the most passing yards in a playoff game by a rookie, Most 4th quarter touchdown passes in a season, and a Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Only QB in NFL history to have winning seasons in his first 9 years. 9x Pro Bowler. 2x Super Bowl appearances, and a Super Bowl champion. He is also a pioneer of the QB position, revitalizing the way the league looked at scrambling QB’s as a skillset, and changed the narrative about QB height, opening the door for many QB’s since. According to advanced analytics like Pro Football Focus, in his Seattle years, there wasn’t a better QB at performing under pressure, making ‘Big Plays’ and passing 20+ yards downfield, with his now signature moonball. He will go down as the most accurate deep ball passer in NFL History, no other way around it.

That seems like a very, very solid HoF case. You may read all of that, and think to yourself that all of that came from his Seattle years, and that would be true for the most part, outside of counting stats. That then begs the question, ‘did he play himself out of the Hall of Fame?’ To answer that, we have to establish what playing yourself out of a Hall of Fame career looks like, and if it’s even possible. Most of the time, when athletes have a Hall of Fame career, and for one reason or another don’t get HoF consideration, it is because of off the field stuff. Think guys like Antonio Brown, who clearly was a HoF talent, yet off the field shenanigans are almost certainly going to keep him out of the Hall. Wilson obviously doesn’t fit that narrative, but was his play bad enough post-Seattle to keep him out of the Hall of Fame? I don’t think it is possible to play yourself out of a Hall of Fame career. Think of it this way: If Patrick Mahomes for the next 7 years, had a losing record and was around mediocre at best, but was clearly a single part of underperforming teams, is he no longer a hall of famer? That obviously won’t happen, but that is the lens you have to look at this from. In this scenario, people would still look at his achievements and success in a vacuum. We have to hold all these players to the same standards and requirements, and the accolades/case I presented for Wilson, is a more than worthy case, and his years following, although they were not his fault (more on that in a bit), beshould not withhold him.

Set up for Failure.

Russell Wilson has fallen victim to narratives surrounding him even before he was drafted. The ridicule that Wilson faced as a prospect coming into the league surrounding his height would be so foreign to the draft process now, and he is the reason the narrative changed about short quarterbacks. Late in his Seattle career, Wilson was the heart, soul, muscle, everything for the Seahawks in 2019, pulling off comebacks and game winning drives almost every week. He statistically had an MVP level season, one of three I would consider were MVP numbers (2015, 2020) but Lamar Jackson was changing the league himself in 2019. The narrative then that offseason was that the Seahawks needed to build around Wilson, thus creating the ‘Let Russ Cook’ Movement. Seattle did invest a little bit more in building around Wilson on offense, yet they made arguably the worst trade in NFL history in dealing two firsts and a third for a safety who couldn’t cover. In 2020, the defense was almost historically bad, creating insurmountable deficits for the offense. This forced Wilson to up his passing volume, which thus also upped his turnovers, slightly. The following season, Wilson would continue to play similar to his 2020 self, until he sustained his first injury of his career and missed a chunk of the season, and hurried back to try and save the Seahawks season while playing injured. Then, the narrative changed that following offseason.

Completely out of the blue, rumors of Wilson wanting out of Seattle started to spawn, and the general media took it and ran with it. The reasoning, in their minds, made sense: the ‘Let Russ Cook’ movement and him being injured for the first time, Wilson was asked in an interview that offseason, what he prioritizes going forward in his career. In short, he stated he wanted to stay healthy, and if that meant Seattle investing in the offensive line more, he was for it. This  was the straw that somehow broke the camel’s back. Trade rumors started flowing like crazy, and eventually Wilson’s camp came out with a list of teams that Wilson “wouldn’t mind” playing for. Meanwhile, there were rumors of a disgruntled Aaron Rogers in Green Bay, and people rumored that he wanted out as well. The Denver Broncos, hearing that, hired Nathaniel Hackett, Rodgers’s OC from Green Bay, and tried to lure him to Denver with a trade package. Obviously, that trade never came to fruition, so Denver opted to go to their back-up option, and being a team that Wilson’s camp listed, sent the offer to Seattle.

You know the rest. Hackett was a historically bad Head Coach and wouldn’t be employed past the new year, and the roster crumbled, and ultimately showed it was not a ‘QB away’ like many thought it was. Wilson battled injuries, playing on a torn lat for the entire season. Regardless, it was his worst statistical season as a pro. People wanted to make fun of this team, and point blame somewhere, and everyone chose Wilson. Why? Because he was corny, and he said “Broncos Country, Let’s Ride.” Is that corny? Absolutely. Is that justification for shifting the blame onto Wilson for the Broncos lack of success? Absolutely not. Hackett’s tenure as a head coach could earn its own article on how disastrous he ran that team. Russell Wilson was set up for failure in 2022 simply because he wasn’t Aaron Rodgers. 

In 2023, the narrative shifted. Denver traded a first round pick to acquire head coach Sean Payton, a superbowl winning head coach. With Payton’s arrival, he made it clear that there would be roster turnover, and that he would want his own guys. The general NFL audience should have looked at this as a rebuild year, because that’s what Payton viewed it as. However, the Broncos found themselves in the Wild Card hunt, thanks to FOUR game winning drives from Russell Wilson. Overall, Wilson played much better, and was statistically a top 10 QB again in every stat aside from passing yards. However, I have been excluding one crucial factor from this season: Sean Payton did not want Russell Wilson as his QB. That in a vacuum is fair, but Payton threatened to bench Wilson due to injury guarantees in his contract (illegal, by the way) and Wilson went 5-0 from Payton telling him that. The first game Wilson would lose after the 5-0 stretch Payton would bench him. This season should be remembered for Wilson overcoming adversity from his own head coach and playing at a top 10 level, but due to his benching and eventual release from the team, it's not remembered that way. Sean Payton treating Wilson this way changed the narrative around him in a very negative way, undeservingly so. Payton is entitled to want his own QB that he selected, but there’s no shadow of a doubt in my mind that the way Payton went about dealing with Wilson, would stain his legacy undeservingly.

Russell Wilson wouldn’t be a free agent for long, as the Steelers would sign him to a one year deal. Wilson would miss a chunk of the start of the season due to injury, but when he returned, he played well. Not great, but certainly not terrible. The Steelers didn’t necessarily set Wilson up for failure, the team all around just crumbled at the end of the season, finishing 0-5. They played arguably the league's best teams in that 5 game stretch, the Ravens twice, the Chiefs, the Eagles, and the red-hot Bengals. It isn’t unreasonable that they lost those games. 

Now at this point in his career, Wilson is 37 years old. Realistically, nobody is going to build around him as their franchise QB. However, that doesn’t excuse the Giants for giving Wilson nothing to work with whatsoever.The Giants brought in Wilson, and drafted Jaxson Dart in the first round. The roster for the Giants is bad, and the schedule is worse. Daboll knew his roster would struggle with this schedule, and drafting a QB, and then playing him, would help him keep his job for longer. The plan is simple: they play 3 playoff teams to open the year, and instead of Daboll being fired, for a bad start, he tells ownership to let him play Jaxson Dart to prolong his tenure as the Giants head coach. I’m not necessarily defending Wilson’s play in the first 3 weeks, I am just saying that the media crafting this narrative about Wilson, are intentionally leaving out the context of the situation at hand. No matter what way you feel about it, objectively, a head coach on the hot seat, a bottom 5 roster in the league, and a rookie QB is not setting up your veteran signal caller for success in the slightest, in fact, it is counting on him to fail, and pin the blame on.

At the time of writing this, Wilson is available for trade, and has stated that he is not done yet. I personally hope Wilson ends up in a situation that fits his needs, rather than the organization looking for someone to use as a scapegoat when things go awry. I hope he finds a situation like Baker on the Bucs, or Darnold on the Vikings, an organization that respects him for the player he is and utilizes what 37 year-old Wilson can bring to the table. Because a man that has done so much in and for the league deserves a happy ending, however it may be.