It's Russ vs. Justin. The battle to the end, the battle to end all battles, the showdown. The only thing about it is, this doesn't seem like a war between the two. It seems like a chance to start over for each of them. Granted, Russ is nearing the end of his career and starting over would give him another few years. Justin, on the other hand, still has a long career left. It could be as a starter if he seizes the moment or it could be as a backup if his play is mediocre. You can last a looooonnnngggg time in this league as a backup going from team to team.
Let's take a look and see how Russ got to this point. Russ is the elder statesman of this qb battle. He is originally from Richmond, Virginia. He was a 2-star recruit and ended up going to N.C. State to play football and baseball for the Wolfpack. He played at N.C. State from 2008 to 2010.
In 2008 he won the QB job after splitting time with 2 other QBs. That season he finished with 150 of 275 completions for 1,955 yards and 17 TDs. In 2009 he was on the All-ACC preseason team. He passed for 3,027 yards with 31 tds and 11 ints. on 224 of 378 passes. In 2010 he went 308 for 527 with 28 tds and 14 ints. He also had 388, 260, and 435 rushing yards in those years. I'd say he was a little bit mobile and a lot of an athlete.
After the 2010 season he decided to report to the Colorado Rockies Spring Training. Seems as though his N.C. State coach didn't agree with his multisport aspirations and there was a parting of the ways. After some interest from Wilson to entering the NFL draft, but little interest from the NFL, Russ committed to Wisconsin for the 2011 season, and it seems like it was a good choice for him. He passed for 225 of 309 with 33 tds and 4 ints and threw in 338 rushing yards for good measure. He was named All Big Ten and won the award for best Big 10 QB named after two pretty good qbs, Griese and Brees. He then led the Badgers to the Big 10 Championship game and then the Rose Bowl. He also managed to set the FBS season record for pass efficiency and was named 3rd team All American.
That all led to the next logical step in a football player's progression, the NFL. He had proven himself in college. He was only lacking in one category to make him a high draft pick. This has not been mentioned previously in this story, but Russ is only 5-10 and 5/8. Those NFL teams love the prototypical 6-4 or bigger qb with the big gun that can throw darts(lol, Jeff). Unfortunately for Russ, he lacked the stature. If he was a few inches taller he probably would have been a second rounder at the least.
The draft came around and the "experts" projected him as a mid-draft selection. It seems that he fell into a perfect situation for himself when Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks decided to take him in the third round of the draft. The "draft experts" laughed at the usage of a 3rd rounder for Wilson. He was too short to be successful in the NFL. They basically didn't like several other of the Seahawks picks also. It wasn't just Russ. The Seahawks had also signed another qb that everybody assumed would end up as the starter. Matt Flynn had a few good games in Green Bay backing up Aaron Rodgers the year before and Seattle signed him to a free agent contract.
Russ competed with Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson to start and ended up winning that battle. It turns out that Carroll either got lucky selecting Russ or he actually saw something in him that told him that Russ wasn't just a short guy that was good in college. He performed very well in his first year, garnering player of the week honors, setting a record for rookie qb rating, and taking his team to the playoffs. The Seahawks ultimately lost in the playoffs in 2012, but the next year Russ would show his talent even further.
In 2013 Russ continued his excellence and he and the Seahawks dominated the Denver Broncos and claimed the championship of the NFL. He finished with 26 tds, nine ints and a 101.2 qb rating. In the Super Bowl he passed for 206 yards and 2 touchdowns.
In 2014 Wilson took the Seahawks back to the postseason and again went to the Super Bowl. He was the first NFL qb to reach the Super Bowl in 2 of his first 3 seasons. The Seahawks were in position to win the game but a controversial decision to pass instead of run the ball near the end of the game ended unsuccessfully.
Wilson continued to be successful with the Seahawks in 2015. In July he signed 4 year, 87.6 million dollar contract with the Seahawks. He broke several Seahawk records in the season, including passing yards, tds, and qb rating. The Seahawks were not able to return to the NFC Championship though. Despite an amazing comeback attempt they were stopped by the Carolina Panthers.
In 2016 Wilson continued his aerial attack, throwing for a career high 4,219 yards. He did suffer injuries that year that seemed to cause his vaunted mobility to suffer. The Seahawks fell to the eventual NFC champ Atlanta Falcons in a divisional round game ending their season.
It's Black and Gold not Black and Yellow
There is a very interesting battle? going on this preseason in the quarterback room of the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the Stillers emptied out their qb shelf from last year, they went hunting for some new talent to restock.
My friend kept saying they were going to go after Russell Wilson. Many time he said that. That was when we still had that KP8 guy. I said, no way, don't want him. He was miserable in Denver and caused all kinds of distractions for the team. Plus, he has his own version of Taylor Swift to cause more distraction off the field. I heard so many other people try to guess what was going to happen in the qb room too. Every qb imaginable was coming to the Burgh. Cousins, he's definitely coming to Pittsburgh. Russ, was a rumor. Fields, was a rumor. At this point I don't even remember the other 50. But, if they were a free agent and had an arm they were coming.
Then, the first domino fell. Trubisky got let go. This should not have been a shock to anyone because of how he has played since arriving, and really since coming to the league. He's not an NFL starter. Really, he didn't even prove he's a quality backup in his time in Pittsburgh. Buffalo seemed to get something out of him when he was there, so he went shuffling of to Buffalo again. I don't think too many people were upset about his departure from Pittsburgh. He got a shot and couldn't hold off KP8.
Then, the next domino fell. QB3/2/1? Mason Rudolph. After Mason proved that he could at least come in and win a few games in relief, there seemed to be interest by the Steelers and him to resign him for some kind of contract. I actually would have liked to have seen that. Firstly, I'm shocked to see Mike Tomlin or whoever's decision it was, decided to give Mason a chance once Kenny was injured. I'm not going to say I knew all along that Mason was going to ride in and save the season. The thought did occur to me in early in the season. What if Kenny and Mitch were injured and Mason had to come in and play. Then, what if he actually played his butt off and won games decisively. Then, what if Kenny and Mitch didn't win games decisively. What a conundrum that would be. What made the whole thing great is that Rudolph won games around Christmas and New Year. All those reindeer that wouldn't let him join their games were hiding. Mason put up a good fight and proved he's a player and ended up signing a contract with the Titans. Seems like a fresh start is a good thing for him.
Next Domino, I get a text and it said they traded Kenny. Truthfully, this is so after the fact that I don't know if the order was Mason leaves, Russ signs or Russ signs and Mason leaves. I'm just going with Mason leaving first. Maybe a few people will comment on the article if I write it wrong. Anyway, so Mason leaves, Russ signs and then the shocker. KP8 apparently doesn't want to compete with Russ for "Pole Position." If Mike T. came to me and said, uh yeah, Kenny, Russ is in Pole Position and you're number 2, I'd have to say what is this a video game or formula one race. I like most of coaches Tomlinisms, but this one annoys me for some reason. Maybe because it just sounds like he went to Kenny and took the whole situation very casually and said he was going to be sucking Russ's exhaust this year. So, Kenny, in his wisdom said I'd rather not do that and to avoid having a hostage on the team (another Tomlinism), they sent him to the lesser-known Pennsylvania team. Guess what he's going to do there. Suck on the exhaust of another qb in Pole Position. Kenny, I'm confused, what did you gain?
So, Kenny is now gone, and Mason is gone, and Mitch is gone, but now we have Russ. Then, the next domino fell. The only thing is this domino was all the way in Chicago. The Bears, who have such a rich history of qbs decided they were going to start over instead of paying their current qb. They decided, with the number one draft pick in hand, to go with Caleb Williams. He talks a big game but hasn't done much to back it up. Well, he'll get his chance with the Bears and their rich qb tradition. They actually acquired a few playmakers for him. That is something they did not do for their previous qb. So, since they were getting Mr. Williams with the number one pick, they did not want competition for the Pole Position(lol), and all of a sudden Justin Fields is free to move on with a year left on his contract and a possible option year. The rumor is that the Bears had multiple offers for Fields, but took the lesser Steelers offer because he wanted to go to Pittsburgh. What a nice team. The same nice team that didn't do anything to help Justin with weapons after they stuck him in there. Don't know if I'm buying what they're selling, but ok.
So, next domino, the Steelers take Fields off the Bears hands for a 6th rounder/4th if he starts half the games this year. Can you say steal. I watched Fields in Columbus at Ohio State. He can play a lot better than what he showed in Chicago. Of course, many college stars have failed miserably in the NFL, but it doesn't seem like he has had a legitimate chance to show what he can do. He nearly set the qb season rushing record one year. I don't have any method to measure the ability to send passes, but I'm pretty confident he can get his passes to receivers a little faster than the floaters Kenny was sending. Honestly, I was thrilled that they got Justin Fields and for a 6th rounder. Thank you, Omar. I knew that one of the things the Bears were taking into consideration when deciding whether to keep Fields or draft Williams was whether they wanted to utilize his 5th year option or not. Once they traded him to Pittsburgh that fell on the Steelers to decide. I liked him at OSU but have not been very high on him with the Bears. Alot of that was because he was with the Bears. As soon as the Steelers picked him up I was sure they'd pick up the option and he'd be their qb of the future.
The more I heard from anyone with an opinion, the less sure I got that the option would be picked up and sure enough there wasn't even a story about it the deadline day. No mention of it whatsoever. Of course, everybody's attention was on whether they'd pick up Najee Harris's option, which they also didn't.
The Steelers restocked qb room, now includes Mr. Pole Position, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and the third guy. I've already got his name wrong before and I'm not wasting my time looking it up now. The top two are all that matter anyway. Russ has a one-year contract for a million dollars or something like that because he's also still being paid many millions by the Broncos. Because Justin Fields 5th year option was declined, he also is on a one year contract. So, if Russ has a good year, he's going to want to get paid significantly more to keep playing. If Russ doesn't play well, and Justin comes in and plays well, he's going to want significantly more than this year. So, unless the Steelers pick one of them in preseason and give them more money, we're going through this whole qb extravaganza again next year.
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