Russell Wilson is not just a football player.
A two sport athlete, Wilson has been drafted by professional sporting teams three times, twice in baseball by the Baltimore Orioles and the Colorado Rockies before rising to national prominence as a quarterback.
Prior to 2011, Wilson spent time as both quarterback at North Carolina State and as a second baseman within the Rockies system.
Wilson was excellent at NC State, first showing the efficient and mistake free passing that would see him excel at Wisconsin.
Despite his success at NC State, Wilson was granted release and was figured to not be a part of the future of the program.
Prior to his arrival, Wisconsin were an excellent team driven by a powerful running game but had a completely one dimensional offense. After his release by NC State, Wilson arrived in Madison and promptly learned a radically different offensive scheme to the West Coast offense ran at NC State.
Despite the short window Wilson had to learn the system, he led Wisconsin to a fantastic season that was derailed only by two losses in the final seconds to Michigan State and Ohio State.
Wisconsin were one of the most powerful teams in college football. Wilson led a record setting efficient offense throwing an incredible 33-4 touchdown to interception ratio while also completing passes at a percentage over 70 percent.
In leading the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, Wilson delivered one of the most impressive performances for a quarterback in all of college football despite being overshadowed by higher profile quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin.
Although the Wisconsin season and Wilson’s collegiate career ended in disappointment with a loss in the Rose Bowl, Wilson demonstrated that he was one of the best quarterbacks at the college level.
Wilson’s accuracy and efficiency broke records, his leadership ability is unquestioned, he has elite speed and an incredibly powerful arm and is incredibly smart.
Wilson’s package of skills should have led him to be a first round quarterback and contending with Robert Griffin III as the second quarterback taken in the draft.
However, Wilson stands at 5 foot 11 and is conventionally seen as too short to succeed in the NFL. Tom Brady is 6’4, Peyton Manning is 6’5 and Cam Newton is 6’6, so height is definitely seen as an asset.
There is only one elite quarterback in the NFL that is considered short – Drew Brees who stands at 6′.
Conventional wisdom across the league is that due to factors such as the size of offensive lineman and the likelihood for passes to be batted down, quarterbacks need to be tall.
As a direct consequence of this conventional opinion, despite his talent, Wilson was entrenched within the middle rounds of the NFL draft.
Seattle drafted Wilson at a low risk position in the third round at 75 overall, the sixth quarterback drafted.
At this position, Wilson figured to not have a chance at even competing to start for the Seahawks entrenched at third behind last year’s starter Tavaris Jackson and marquee free agent signing Matt Flynn.
Fortunately for Wilson, Seattle coach Pete Carroll treated training camp as an open competition between the three for the starting position.
Quickly this turned into a two person race between Flynn and Wilson with Jackson falling away.
Throughout the training camp Wilson performed fantastically, completely outplaying Flynn. After coming with and against the second units in the first two games of the preseason, Wilson showed that he belongs in the top league.
After his performance in both training and live games, Wilson was granted the opportunity to start the third preseason game. Unlike other camp phenomenons who had the chance to start and promptly fail against first unit defences, Wilson was sensational as a passer and also proving his value as a runner.
Within days Carroll announced that Wilson would be Seattle’s opening day starter.
Wilson is an example of two competing influences that shape drafts and the selection of prospects.
At one side there are prospects like Ryan Tannehill. Unpolished but athletically impressive with size, power and athleticism.
These prospects are looked at with hesitation, they are players General Managers are scared of, scared of drafting them for their clear downsides and scared of their upside if they don’t draft them.
Where Tannehill is tantalising for his upside due to his athletic talent, Wilson is dismissed for lacking one measurable that is seen as the key to success.
There are players across the league in every position that have faced this criticism in the draft process.
The most notable of these are that Tom Brady wasn’t athletic enough and Maurice Jones-Drew was too short but despite these problems, both players have developed into two of the best players in the league over other players who possessed superior physical tools.
Just like Brady, Wilson has his chance to prove his doubters wrong. If any quarterback under six foot can do it, it should be him.
Article link: NFL: Who is Russell Wilson?. Written by hotairitout, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion