Is this an accurate description of Russell Wilson’s game?
November 12, 2024
Is this an accurate description of Russell Wilson’s game?
38 comments
His moon ball is always beautiful.
He is also a proven winner many times. Those early career fourth quarter come backs have too many good memories I will cherish. The most obvious one is the Conference game against Green Bay. To me, he is one in a million who was kissed by God himself.
The one-yard throw will always pain me as a fan and create all those what if things in my mind for the rest of my life.
Geno, Hasselbeck and others are good, but they don’t provide the same amount of excitement compare to Russ’s evades, moon balls or ignite the same amount of faith I have with Seahawks to come back in 4th quarter.
To me, Russ is special and a blessing to us and the Seahawks.
Pretty much
Russ is the ultimate improviser and when it works it works but when it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. If the defense makes him throw over the middle, he can’t do it consistently and you’ll fail
Absolutely, it is. You don’t last 14 seasons with 9 pro bowls, just throwing 50-50 deep balls up for grabs. The way he throws the deep ball with a high arc is unique and gives his receivers a better than 50 percent chance of catching it compared to the normal NFL deep ball. Because of the time the ball hangs in the air, it gives receivers more time to adjust and make the catch, making it much harder to defend. There’s a reason Pickens’s numbers have improved so much in the 3 games Russ has started. And at this point in his career, while he does have weaknesses in his game, Russ is a nightmare for any defense as long as you have a decent running game. Play 2 high to take his deep ball away, you run it down the defenses throat. Crowd the line of scrimmage, he’s going to beat you over the top a couple times a game.
I think there’s truth to it but understand that Russ has enough passes thrown that we can agree he’s good.
Not gonna lie, the Russ era was filled with mickey mouse magic and it bailed us out soooooo many times.. Pete knew the formula and ran the ball (a little more than we liked) but it seemed to fit Russ like a glove
Russ is the kind of guy that will cause your offense to stall out most of the game. A lot of 3-and-outs, he will miss wide open guys less than 10 yards away, and he might try to do some silly shit with his legs that doesn’t pay off.
And then there is a moment in the game where every drive has to be legit as fuck in order to win and thats when he locks in and hero balls his way to the W.
At this stage in his career it’s accurate. In his peak years he could just straight up kill you off schedule no matter what defense you were running.
Everyone here needs to admit that Russ is a good QB. Maybe even HoF worthy. But everyone here also needs to move on
Yep that’s Russ
That seems about right. When he was younger and could be Houdini in the pocket, his skill set made him a top 5 QB because guys like Doug Baldwin understood where to be for off-script passes.
Now he’s less Danger-Russ and the passing attack has to stay much more on-script and his limitations are more pronounced now as a result. But with a coach in Tomlin who is perfectly happy to embody the Pete Carroll approach of running the ball and working off play action those limitations are not nearly as pronounced as they were in Denver.
Compare what he’s doing now versus the new captain check-down of the league in Aaron Rodgers. Russ took a guy who just walked onto the team, after being called out by Rodgers, and that guy had more yards and touchdowns on Sunday in one pass from Russ than Devonte Adams had on 13 targets from Rodgers the same day. When Russ sees man coverage he can still go for the jugular.
It’s accurate. Very brief and general, but accurate.
I mean, it’s football 101 and every team plays to this. If you can be successful down the field, it opens up the run game because the defense can’t play up to stop the run. If you can run the ball, it opens up the deep ball because defenses play up to stop the run. Russ’ deep ball is really good, so if a team plays up he can make them pay. If he couldn’t throw that deep ball so well, teams would stack the line and dare him to throw it.
Not entirely accurate. He’s not a system qb. He’s an anti system QB in that no one in their right mind would design the offensive system that Russ ultimately molds the offense into, on purpose. He destroys systems. But I do agree, “insane catches” are only made when the ball is thrown in a place the receiver can catch it. Most QB’s just throw incompletions. Russ has one of the best all around arms in NFL history. His moon ball is legendary, but he’s one of the best to ever do it on any platform at any angle. He doesn’t lose accuracy or power when he’s running right or left or in the pocket or out of it. He has immaculate touch. Never too hard, never too soft. There’s no spot on the field he can’t get the ball to, and he always delivers it exactly as it needs to be delivered. I would even go so far to say that if I was building a perfect QB I would pick Russell Wilson’s arm. It’s not the absolute strongest arm, but he’s basically an A- or A on every single arm measurable.
All that being said, he has lost some of his arm from his peak, and obviously his athleticism has dropped pretty significantly. Still can’t throw over the middle, and still having major issues seeing open receivers and going through progressions. I don’t see him playing any different that he did in Denver, and he was extremely mid in Denver.
The clutch thing, I’ve waffled on it. I will say he is an excellent performer in high leverage situations, but I’m sorry I hope we can be honest about this now, a lot of his most clutch moments were simply the team/Russ overperforming after spending the first 3 quarters underperforming and IMO that’s not really clutch. I have ADHD and finish everything at the very last moment, and no one considers me “clutch”, they consider me a lazy procrastinator lol. And fair or not, you can’t lost a superbowl the way he did and earn the clutch moniker. You can’t be clutch and also owner of arguably the most notorious choke job in history. Or maybe you can? IDK. All I know is with hindsight the number of games where the Hawks were just going hit for hit with a team and Russ was able to clutch out a victory are pretty infrequent. It was most often Russ just playing catch up for sucking all game.
Mostly, what it’s missing is how prime Russ ability to run read option and scramble on 3rd downs in addition to that stuff is what truly made him a top 5 qb in his peak. And also why when he stopped running the offense truly became anemic and boom/bust
It is, spot on
He’s had some classic Russell Wilson games now with the Steelers where everything looks just like the Seahawks. IMO here are the ingredients for a successful Russell Wilson system:
**- Great Defense** – Steeler’s Defense is good (2nd in fewest TDs). They keep the opposing team’s defense on the field. Russell racks up his numbers in the 3rd and 4th quarters on exhausted opponents.
**- Respectable run game** – Doesn’t even have to be O-line attributable, or as good as Lynch back in the day, but just respectable.
**- Safe throws** – Russell was like 50% completion ratio in these last few games, and he would constantly throw out of bounds with the Hawks to avoid losing yards when the defense reads the plays well.
**- Good Receivers** – They can’t suck, that’s about it. Because of the other non-QB related ingredients above (great defense, respectable run game), they will eventually be running against tired coverage.
Russ, or any other quarterback in this system, just plays the part of throwing safe (something you can do when you can rely on your defense) and being able to hit receivers like any average QB should be able to. The one thing that Russ added to the mix his early years was elusiveness. That was his one huge plus. Everything else was average about him and that is all it needed to be. Denver didn’t have all of these ingredients. His numbers were above average in years, but it was completely due to late comeback drives against exhausted defenses.
Russ, and frankly so many of these recent quarterbacks, demanded way too high a salary and didn’t give credit where credit was due (e.g. Dak and his O-line). We’re seeing the benefits of a low-cost QB and money spent elsewhere.
Crazy catches by “pedestrian” receivers. Sure dude 👍🏼
I think this is an oversimplification honestly. he can shred cover 2 as well, especially around 2015 – 2017 when we had Jimmy consistently dominating over the middle
I can 100% agree that his style is both exciting and frustrating, yes.
Russell Wilson is such a good gauge for the state of the world, last year it was he can’t make throws down the field anymore because he’s washed even though he had the longest pass in the entire NFL last year. Last year’s narrative was also he can only do check downs. Now he gets bailed out by his wide receivers on big plays because now that’s all he can do, the same wide receivers that were non existent before he played, and one wide receiver being outcast by the great Aaron Rodgers. We are living in the post reality age. It definitely tracks why he’s so hated a person who’s been the exact same way is considered fake, and someone trying to be a good person.
Oh hey I’m the second comment lol. I stand by what I said
I am so happy to hear that he never lost so many of his fans thank you Russell Wilson fans for being true blue as well. I am a true blue Seahawks 💙💚fan from the day coach Carol came on board and then Russell Wilson was just all hearts 💖 to me from day 1. yes he lost his edge for a while and when he went to the Broncos💙🧡 I was estatic because I am a Broncos fan as well and then still he did not mesh, I am so excited to see him playing with his new teamates that are actually CATCHING!!! THOSE MOON BALLS 🌝 🏈 as well 💛🖤
Yes, with the huge footnote that he’s lost a lot of the mobility that made his early years’ play action so deadly.
I haven’t watched the Stealers. Are they prone to slow starts and delay of game penalties? I have no issues with Russ but these two things always drove me crazy.
The problem was he didn’t want to be a system QB during the last 5 years with us. It took a lot of humility before he got to where he’s at now.
There’s some contradiction… how is he a “system QB” if his success depends on improvisation and throwing 50/50 moonballs?
Breadbasket placement is “bailed out”? WTF?
I am not the world’s biggest Russ fan but he was never bailed out by his WR’s. The only thing he was ever bailed out by was his defense (minus the playoff game vs the Falcons in 2012 in particular).
I’ve never seen anyone be able to throw as accurately on deep throws while on the run. He is a master of “Dropping it in a bucket.”
This is true
Pretty much describes him. But like in Denver, defenses took about 3 or 4 games to learn how to neutralize him in the new system. I’m thinking this will happen again. If so, it’s either this game or the next that the wheels come off
You saw problems that would arise later during his tenure in Seattle. 2-high Safeties and A-gap blitzes/pressures began to show what this report is getting at. But, he is still making plays.
I’d argue from 15-20, he was a Top 3-5 QB in the NFL
Welcome to the other Steeler sub.
This is an accurate take. The reason he and Seattle split was that Russ disagreed with this take b cause he thought he was Mr Unlimited and that he was a different kind of QB than he is.
I don’t know if the Denver experience has truly humbled him since he had such an appraisal mindset. He won’t think “I guess I’m not that guy,” he’ll think “I just need to work harder to be that guy.”
Tomlin swings a pretty big dick, though, and the Steelers as an organization have the right kind of identity. If anyone can put him back into and keep him in the box he needs to be in for success it’s Tomlin.
If Russ is the beneficiary of a “system,” so was Brady. I mean, christ on a cracker, *all* qbs are the beneficiaries of a system. Without one, qbs die. Looking at you Browns….Panthers….Bears…..Jets….
Russ with a bully running back and half-decent OLine is better than half the QBs in the league. That was true in 2012 and it’s true now.
38 comments
His moon ball is always beautiful.
He is also a proven winner many times. Those early career fourth quarter come backs have too many good memories I will cherish. The most obvious one is the Conference game against Green Bay. To me, he is one in a million who was kissed by God himself.
The one-yard throw will always pain me as a fan and create all those what if things in my mind for the rest of my life.
Geno, Hasselbeck and others are good, but they don’t provide the same amount of excitement compare to Russ’s evades, moon balls or ignite the same amount of faith I have with Seahawks to come back in 4th quarter.
To me, Russ is special and a blessing to us and the Seahawks.
Pretty much
Russ is the ultimate improviser and when it works it works but when it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. If the defense makes him throw over the middle, he can’t do it consistently and you’ll fail
Absolutely, it is. You don’t last 14 seasons with 9 pro bowls, just throwing 50-50 deep balls up for grabs. The way he throws the deep ball with a high arc is unique and gives his receivers a better than 50 percent chance of catching it compared to the normal NFL deep ball. Because of the time the ball hangs in the air, it gives receivers more time to adjust and make the catch, making it much harder to defend. There’s a reason Pickens’s numbers have improved so much in the 3 games Russ has started. And at this point in his career, while he does have weaknesses in his game, Russ is a nightmare for any defense as long as you have a decent running game. Play 2 high to take his deep ball away, you run it down the defenses throat. Crowd the line of scrimmage, he’s going to beat you over the top a couple times a game.
I think there’s truth to it but understand that Russ has enough passes thrown that we can agree he’s good.
Not gonna lie, the Russ era was filled with mickey mouse magic and it bailed us out soooooo many times.. Pete knew the formula and ran the ball (a little more than we liked) but it seemed to fit Russ like a glove
Russ is the kind of guy that will cause your offense to stall out most of the game. A lot of 3-and-outs, he will miss wide open guys less than 10 yards away, and he might try to do some silly shit with his legs that doesn’t pay off.
And then there is a moment in the game where every drive has to be legit as fuck in order to win and thats when he locks in and hero balls his way to the W.
At this stage in his career it’s accurate. In his peak years he could just straight up kill you off schedule no matter what defense you were running.
Everyone here needs to admit that Russ is a good QB. Maybe even HoF worthy. But everyone here also needs to move on
Yep that’s Russ
That seems about right. When he was younger and could be Houdini in the pocket, his skill set made him a top 5 QB because guys like Doug Baldwin understood where to be for off-script passes.
Now he’s less Danger-Russ and the passing attack has to stay much more on-script and his limitations are more pronounced now as a result. But with a coach in Tomlin who is perfectly happy to embody the Pete Carroll approach of running the ball and working off play action those limitations are not nearly as pronounced as they were in Denver.
Compare what he’s doing now versus the new captain check-down of the league in Aaron Rodgers. Russ took a guy who just walked onto the team, after being called out by Rodgers, and that guy had more yards and touchdowns on Sunday in one pass from Russ than Devonte Adams had on 13 targets from Rodgers the same day. When Russ sees man coverage he can still go for the jugular.
It’s accurate. Very brief and general, but accurate.
I mean, it’s football 101 and every team plays to this. If you can be successful down the field, it opens up the run game because the defense can’t play up to stop the run. If you can run the ball, it opens up the deep ball because defenses play up to stop the run. Russ’ deep ball is really good, so if a team plays up he can make them pay. If he couldn’t throw that deep ball so well, teams would stack the line and dare him to throw it.
Not entirely accurate. He’s not a system qb. He’s an anti system QB in that no one in their right mind would design the offensive system that Russ ultimately molds the offense into, on purpose. He destroys systems. But I do agree, “insane catches” are only made when the ball is thrown in a place the receiver can catch it. Most QB’s just throw incompletions. Russ has one of the best all around arms in NFL history. His moon ball is legendary, but he’s one of the best to ever do it on any platform at any angle. He doesn’t lose accuracy or power when he’s running right or left or in the pocket or out of it. He has immaculate touch. Never too hard, never too soft. There’s no spot on the field he can’t get the ball to, and he always delivers it exactly as it needs to be delivered. I would even go so far to say that if I was building a perfect QB I would pick Russell Wilson’s arm. It’s not the absolute strongest arm, but he’s basically an A- or A on every single arm measurable.
All that being said, he has lost some of his arm from his peak, and obviously his athleticism has dropped pretty significantly. Still can’t throw over the middle, and still having major issues seeing open receivers and going through progressions. I don’t see him playing any different that he did in Denver, and he was extremely mid in Denver.
The clutch thing, I’ve waffled on it. I will say he is an excellent performer in high leverage situations, but I’m sorry I hope we can be honest about this now, a lot of his most clutch moments were simply the team/Russ overperforming after spending the first 3 quarters underperforming and IMO that’s not really clutch. I have ADHD and finish everything at the very last moment, and no one considers me “clutch”, they consider me a lazy procrastinator lol. And fair or not, you can’t lost a superbowl the way he did and earn the clutch moniker. You can’t be clutch and also owner of arguably the most notorious choke job in history. Or maybe you can? IDK. All I know is with hindsight the number of games where the Hawks were just going hit for hit with a team and Russ was able to clutch out a victory are pretty infrequent. It was most often Russ just playing catch up for sucking all game.
Mostly, what it’s missing is how prime Russ ability to run read option and scramble on 3rd downs in addition to that stuff is what truly made him a top 5 qb in his peak. And also why when he stopped running the offense truly became anemic and boom/bust
It is, spot on
He’s had some classic Russell Wilson games now with the Steelers where everything looks just like the Seahawks. IMO here are the ingredients for a successful Russell Wilson system:
**- Great Defense** – Steeler’s Defense is good (2nd in fewest TDs). They keep the opposing team’s defense on the field. Russell racks up his numbers in the 3rd and 4th quarters on exhausted opponents.
**- Respectable run game** – Doesn’t even have to be O-line attributable, or as good as Lynch back in the day, but just respectable.
**- Safe throws** – Russell was like 50% completion ratio in these last few games, and he would constantly throw out of bounds with the Hawks to avoid losing yards when the defense reads the plays well.
**- Good Receivers** – They can’t suck, that’s about it. Because of the other non-QB related ingredients above (great defense, respectable run game), they will eventually be running against tired coverage.
Russ, or any other quarterback in this system, just plays the part of throwing safe (something you can do when you can rely on your defense) and being able to hit receivers like any average QB should be able to. The one thing that Russ added to the mix his early years was elusiveness. That was his one huge plus. Everything else was average about him and that is all it needed to be. Denver didn’t have all of these ingredients. His numbers were above average in years, but it was completely due to late comeback drives against exhausted defenses.
Russ, and frankly so many of these recent quarterbacks, demanded way too high a salary and didn’t give credit where credit was due (e.g. Dak and his O-line). We’re seeing the benefits of a low-cost QB and money spent elsewhere.
Crazy catches by “pedestrian” receivers. Sure dude 👍🏼
I think this is an oversimplification honestly. he can shred cover 2 as well, especially around 2015 – 2017 when we had Jimmy consistently dominating over the middle
I can 100% agree that his style is both exciting and frustrating, yes.
Russell Wilson is such a good gauge for the state of the world, last year it was he can’t make throws down the field anymore because he’s washed even though he had the longest pass in the entire NFL last year. Last year’s narrative was also he can only do check downs. Now he gets bailed out by his wide receivers on big plays because now that’s all he can do, the same wide receivers that were non existent before he played, and one wide receiver being outcast by the great Aaron Rodgers. We are living in the post reality age. It definitely tracks why he’s so hated a person who’s been the exact same way is considered fake, and someone trying to be a good person.
Oh hey I’m the second comment lol. I stand by what I said
I am so happy to hear that he never lost so many of his fans thank you Russell Wilson fans for being true blue as well. I am a true blue Seahawks 💙💚fan from the day coach Carol came on board and then Russell Wilson was just all hearts 💖 to me from day 1. yes he lost his edge for a while and when he went to the Broncos💙🧡 I was estatic because I am a Broncos fan as well and then still he did not mesh, I am so excited to see him playing with his new teamates that are actually CATCHING!!! THOSE MOON BALLS 🌝 🏈 as well 💛🖤
Yes, with the huge footnote that he’s lost a lot of the mobility that made his early years’ play action so deadly.
I haven’t watched the Stealers. Are they prone to slow starts and delay of game penalties? I have no issues with Russ but these two things always drove me crazy.
The problem was he didn’t want to be a system QB during the last 5 years with us.
It took a lot of humility before he got to where he’s at now.
There’s some contradiction… how is he a “system QB” if his success depends on improvisation and throwing 50/50 moonballs?
Breadbasket placement is “bailed out”? WTF?
I am not the world’s biggest Russ fan but he was never bailed out by his WR’s. The only thing he was ever bailed out by was his defense (minus the playoff game vs the Falcons in 2012 in particular).
I’ve never seen anyone be able to throw as accurately on deep throws while on the run. He is a master of “Dropping it in a bucket.”
This is true
Pretty much describes him. But like in Denver, defenses took about 3 or 4 games to learn how to neutralize him in the new system. I’m thinking this will happen again. If so, it’s either this game or the next that the wheels come off
You saw problems that would arise later during his tenure in Seattle. 2-high Safeties and A-gap blitzes/pressures began to show what this report is getting at. But, he is still making plays.
I’d argue from 15-20, he was a Top 3-5 QB in the NFL
Welcome to the other Steeler sub.
This is an accurate take. The reason he and Seattle split was that Russ disagreed with this take b cause he thought he was Mr Unlimited and that he was a different kind of QB than he is.
I don’t know if the Denver experience has truly humbled him since he had such an appraisal mindset. He won’t think “I guess I’m not that guy,” he’ll think “I just need to work harder to be that guy.”
Tomlin swings a pretty big dick, though, and the Steelers as an organization have the right kind of identity. If anyone can put him back into and keep him in the box he needs to be in for success it’s Tomlin.
If Russ is the beneficiary of a “system,” so was Brady. I mean, christ on a cracker, *all* qbs are the beneficiaries of a system. Without one, qbs die. Looking at you Browns….Panthers….Bears…..Jets….
Russ with a bully running back and half-decent OLine is better than half the QBs in the league. That was true in 2012 and it’s true now.