Russell Wilson Latest Victim Of The Tom Brady Effect
Seattle Seahawks star Russell Wilson has joined the burgeoning group of quarterbacks thinking about a trade this offseason.
Two days after Super Bowl LV, Russell Wilson publicly criticized the way the Seattle Seahawks played. Specifically, he’s unhappy with the amount of hits he takes, and the quality of the offense in front of him.
His comments aren’t incendiary by any means. For any other player, it would be a simple case of answering a question that was put to them.
However, the fact that it’s Russell Wilson making the comments is unusual. In nine years with Seattle, he has never been so critical. In fact, he has never been critical at all.
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Wilson has always been constructive, and complimentary of his teammates. He’s been complimentary of his opponents when the Seahawks have been beaten.Â
He has a high-risk high reward style that has resulted in 394 sacks in 114 games, the most in a player’s first nine seasons since 1970. Wilson has finished in the top five for sacks taken in six consecutive years. In spite of that, he has never complained about being hit.
He’s also never hinted that he might finish his career elsewhere, until now.
“I think that’s a big thing (Seattle’s protection) that we’ve got to fix,” he said.
“That’s got to be fixed and has to be at the end of the day, because my goal is to play 10 to 15 more years.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll play in Seattle,” he added. “I think, hopefully, it can be forever. But things change, obviously, along the way.”
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The Tom Brady effect can’t be ignored here, and as well as the incredible achievement of his 7th ring, he’s achieved something else. Tom Brady made other quarterbacks more envious of him than they already were. He made the dynastic quarterback fashionable. Now, he’s made jumping ship to win fashionable.
Aaron Rodgers has committed his future to Green Bay, but don’t for one second think he didn’t look over at Tom and think he’d like to do the same thing. DeShaun Watson wants out of Houston. Matthew Stafford left Detroit for the Rams.
Wilson is clearly still smarting over Seattle’s wild card loss to the Rams, in which he was dominated by Aaron Donald.
“The difference between that game was Tom was taking shots down the field and getting the ball to his guys and stuff like that,” Wilson told Dan Patrick, “but he wasn’t touched, really.”
