Remember Mark Sanchez had the #1 defense and #1 run game in the nfl his first two years? Went to the afc championship game back to back. Now what? I'm not comparing Wilson to Sanchez here but just saying he fits in the system over there very well and his players/coaches and fans all back and trust him. He's great no doubt but it's his team that's greater and would win without him! Nowhere near best qb in the league. I said by year 4 A. Luck would be the best. I'll still hold on to that thought. Rodgers is #1 for the moment
Interesting comment, but there's a huge difference between going to the AFC Championship and winning a SB in your 2nd year on the job. It is true, however, that Seattle's defense last year was one of the best ever.
We could even go back and look at dudes like Trent Dilfer or maybe even Jim Plunkett but there's really
no comparison in talent level and understanding offenses and defenses (the way they're built today). Perhaps the closest comparison I can think of, which LoyaltyisaCurse already mentioned, is Fran Tarkenton. He was
way ahead of his time, by decades. But he didn't win the big one.
Maybe a comparison to Steve Young is more appropriate. Was Steve Young a system QB? He sucked in Tampa. But is there any doubt he deserves to be in the HOF?
The system QB observation I think is a flawed one. Each team takes players they think fits their system. If they don't, they build a system around their franchise QB.
Other responses that I'm too lazy to quote:
The Joe Montana comparison, being a system QB, doesn't hold up, because he had to play in a West Coast system due to a lack of arm strength. I'm sure that will stress people out, but he just didn't have superior arm strength, not the way QB's nowadays have, and even back then not the strength of a Stabler or Plunkett or Fouts etc. He made up for it with quick reads, had a lightening release--but he didn't have the arm strength of a player like Wilson. Wilson can throw further with better accuracy than Montana while falling backwards or running. And frankly, Roger Craig was a better RB than Lynch, and their defense was nails. They had HOFers on their offensive line and all throughout the defense. That's back when you could stack teams. How many HOFers does Seattle have on its defense?
It's also a flawed argument to say a player like Rodgers or Peyton or Brees would succeed in any system. How can anyone with a straight face say Wilson can play in this system but not others, while saying those other 3 could? Put Peyton in a Jets system or even a Seattle system or some such,
where he can't audible and hands off half the time and throws short passes and let's see what his #'s look like. You develop the system around HOF talent. Seattle's system was totally different under Tavaris Jackson and Matt Hasselback. You tailor the system to fit what Wilson does, and any team he went to would do the same. Dan Fouts is my favorite QB--I could just see Don Coryell saying our system is to run and run some more with Chuck Muncie. Or Don Shula telling Dan Marino, no we're a running, ball control team (which they totally were before Marino arrived). It's a ridiculous argument. Teams throughout the history of the NFL have tailored their offenses around their talent at QB.
You can go back to Tarkenton, Blanda, Johnny Unitas, Sonny Jurgensen (who would beat the **** out of RG3), all those teams tailored the game plan around their QB's back when most teams were still running primarily. Even go back further to Otto Graham. My favorite QB, who basically won everything. We're talking way back, when an incomplete pass was a penalty and a drop was a turnover. Yet they
still tailored the system around those guys. It's not new.
The only QB I'd take over Wilson,
maybe, is Luck. Because of his age. Rodgers is a great QB, like Peyton and Brees, but he's a dinosaur (30) in comparison to Wilson and the rest of them are fossils.
I'm not slighting those QB's, I'm just saying if you're building for the future, Wilson already has a SB and is younger and just as good as them, despite what some of you think.
People have thought for years,
years, that players like Randall Cunningham, Vick, Cam Newton and Kaepernick were the QB of the future, the new breed of QB--but it's Russell Wilson.
