It’s been this case for a while now, but Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is the most underrated player in the NFL, and it’s not close.
You know who’s grossly underrated as a football player? Russell Wilson.
Just because he’s slightly under 6-feet tall, Wilson has often been overlooked from the start. It’s stupid really, as Wilson is the best quarterback in the NFL not named Patrick Mahomes entering the 2020 season. He and Mahomes are the only two quarterbacks who can carry teams to the playoffs by themselves.
In eight years out of Wisconsin, a school he had to transfer to because North Carolina State wanted to see if 6-foot-6 Mike Glennon could be a halfway decent ACC quarterback, Wilson has made it to six Pro Bowls, won a Super Bowl, been to another and has never had a losing season as the Seattle Seahawks starter. He has reached the playoffs seven times in eight years.
Yet people continue to doubt him. He’s the best quarterback in the NFL to have never been named First-Team All-Pro. You could argue he’s on his way to being a Seahawks’ Mt. Rushmore candidate with the likes of left tackle Walter Jones and wide receiver Steve Largent. With an 86-44-1 record as a starter, we’ve been foolish to not appreciate all he’s done thus far.
Routinely, we count his team out. The Los Angeles Rams have Sean McVay, the San Francisco 49ers have Kyle Shanahan and the Arizona Cardinals drafted Kyler Murray No. 1 overall out of Oklahoma. The NFC West is ultra-competitive, but the one constant has been the Seahawks’ viability.
Wilson has clearly been the biggest reason for that.
He was so charismatic in his one year at Wisconsin he was named a captain during his first few weeks on campus. The Badgers have never had a quarterback like him before, or since. Just ask Bret Bielema or Paul Chryst. Despite being a third-round pick, Wilson outperformed Matt Flynn in 2012 training camp for the Seahawks and took the starting job. Flynn was a guy the late Paul Allen paid top-dollar to.
So if you continue to doubt Wilson and his ability to play quarterback at a ridiculously high level, that’s on you. He’s earned more respect than he’s getting.