While Patrick Mahomes didn’t have one of his all-time great games on Thursday, he certainly looked better than Russell Wilson has recently. Mahomes is widely regarded as the greatest football player today, while many wonder if Wilson can even still play. Mike Florio believes that Wilson thought he could be the Mahomes type — but he discovered overwise in Denver. And now that he is past that, perhaps he has a path to success.
“Before you know it, Russell [Wilson] is slipping down the stack of the best quarterbacks in football, through no fault of his own,” Florio said on 93.7 The Fan this past week. “These other guys are better. Why are they better? Well, the offense runs through them. They get to do all this stuff, and Russ is basically shackled by the Seahawks’ love of running the ball and playing defense and being conservative.”
Wilson “wanted to be [Patrick] Mahomes or [Josh] Allen, and he found out after two years in Denver, that’s not who he is,” Florio added. “They get him back to being what he was in Seattle, he can be successful again. And Mike Tomlin clearly believes it. The fact that Mike Tomlin didn’t bother to call Sean Payton tells me everything I need to know. They view the last two years as an aberration and they think they can make Russell Wilson into who he was in Seattle.”
Getting Russell Wilson back to his Seahawks days has been the selling point for him all along. After all, there isn’t too much to sell after posting losing records with the Broncos. But it’s equally fair to question if this is another Seattle situation, or if he is still that quarterback, because he is certainly not Mahomes.
Over his career, Russell Wilson has averaged 306-for-472 for 3638 yards and 28 touchdowns to 9 interceptions per season. Patrick Mahomes averages 341-for-512 for 4,061 yards with 31 touchdowns to 9 interceptions. They both protect the ball, but Mahomes is clearly the more dynamic player.
Of course, nobody ever actually said that Russell Wilson is similar to Patrick Mahomes. And I have no idea if Wilson ever thought that he could be that kind of Mahomes quarterback. After all, Mahomes is one of the more unique players at his position we’ve seen thrive in some time.
What we do know is that the Seahawks did lean on their run game and defense during Wilson’s peak years. Mahomes often has a good to great defense, and has had some talented backs, as well. But Mahomes has always carried the offense on his shoulders, and he has always produced.
While that isn’t quite Russell Wilson, he still has his strengths, and you still see his ability. Many observers pointed out that he still has the deep ball that was a strength for him in Seattle. The Steelers hope to exploit that this season, assuming they have the receivers to take advantage. And I don’t think they or anybody else is expecting him to deliver Patrick Mahomes performances.
