 |
| "Late night shooting for the moon like Warren" - Hoodie Allen |
I saw a leader, poised and blessed with savvy. While his teammates around him struggled with assignments, tackling, and catching passes, I saw a man who kept his cool. He had ice water running through his veins. To borrow a phrase from Andre Lauren Benjamin, he was "smooth like a hot comb on nappy ass hair." The level of his game never dipped when his team needed him most and that's starting to become a trademark of his. His name is Russell Wilson and this was a signature performance.
Let's go back to a time when things weren't quite so rosey for the Seahawks 3rd round draft pick out of Wisconsin. October 2nd, 2012. The 'Hawks had just dropped a tough one in St. Louis. It was a game that many expected the Hawks to win, themselves included. It was a game that featured 3 interceptions, all of the fluke variety, from #3. A large group of Seahawks fans had their torches and pitchforks out and wanted blood. They wanted Matt Flynn. In the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend! No, not everyone wanted Russell Wilson's head on a stick, certainly not me and certainly not former Seahawks QB Warren Moon. Moon had this to say after the debacle under the arch..
"This kid is in his fourth football game in the National Football League, his team is 2-2, right in the thick of their division, he had one bad outing which wasn't even a bad outing – some of those things were out of his control – and people are ready to pull the plug,"
"Just be patient with the guy, let him fight through this and hopefully we continue to keep winning football games as we do it."
I found this quote from Moon even more interesting..
"If you want to get the most out of Russell Wilson, get him more involved in what you're doing offensively, let him throw the football, let him play action, let him get outside, let him do some of those things that he does best, that he was doing in the preseason," Moon said. "They're not doing that right now."
Turns out Moon was right. Turns out that Moon might know a thing or two about good ole' #3. Part of that comes with having decades of experience in professional football under his belt. The other part of it stems from something more human. My feeling is that Warren Moon sees a lot of himself in Russell Wilson. Forget the physical similarities for a minute, because there aren't many. Moon wins the eyeball test and the tale of the tape hands down save for mobility. You could make a case for arm strength and even then it's a bit of a stretch to say that Russell Wilson has a "Warren Moon" type arm. Moon is known as one of the game's all-time great gunslingers so it'll be a while before Russell can state his case, although I feel the potential is there. Where I think they are extremely similar is in the intangibles area. Now we all know it's tough to quantify the intangibles and exactly how important they are but there's no denying their existance.
 |
| Moon at UW |
Hard worker, cool as a cucumber, overlooked, underappreciated, and told to change positions coming out of college. Sound familiar? Much like Russell Wilson, Warren Moon followed a similar path to the NFL. After leading the Huskies to a Rose Bowl victory over the Wolverines in 1978, Moon found that the only interest any NFL teams had in him was not at Quarterback, the position he had played and excelled at his entire life, but instead at Tight End since NFL teams were still racist?... and did not believe a black quarterback could start and succeed in the NFL. And while people have evolved in certain areas and Russell Wilson wasn't subjected to this same outlandish outcasting, he did face his own "color barrier" of sorts. His height.
Lucky for Russell, John Schneider didn't give a damn about height. Lucky for Pete Carroll and the 12th Man too. Warren Moon wasn't so lucky. He spent 6 seasons north of the border with the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL before heading back down to the States to play in the NFL. So the man knows a thing or two about going through adversity. It's in this area that Warren Moon is a wise choice to help mentor the former Wolfpack and Badger. Warren Moon has faced all the challenges that Russell is going through right now. He's been through it all, and worse, and managed to keep a cool demeanor all while becoming the first player (Bud Grant did it as a coach) enshrined in both the Pro Football Half of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Moon also silenced all the critics by becoming the first black Quarterback ever in the Hall of Fame. The case could be made that Warren Moon is the original Russell Wilson.
Moon said that Wilson could handle more and we've seen that come true in the past few weeks. We're starting to see some of the things that got us thinking Super Bowl in the preseason. What impresses me so much about Wilson is his cool demeanor under pressure. He just never seems to react to anything that happens during the game with too much emotion. We've seen him frustrated (Arizona game) and jubilant (Green Bay game) afterwards but during the heat of the moment he's as focused as they come. I genuinely love the fact that I know I won't ever have to worry about him throwing a tantrum like Cutler or throwing teammates under the bus. What also impresses me is his ability to step up in the pocket and just throw absolute lasers to his receivers, as well as his uncanny ability to feel and avoid pressure. This blend of abilities makes me feel like I'm watching the love child of Fran Tarkenton and Warren Moon on a weekly basis.
What's next for #3? We'll see. When watching his highlight videos before the draft and from having watched him play for both NC State and Wisconsin, what always amazed me was how many incredible catches his receivers were able to make. Normally this would be used to detract from a quarterback's abilities but with Russell it's different somehow. We even saw it in the preseason with some of the catches Braylon Edwards was able to make on throws from Wilson. Call it luck, call it determination, call it fate, call it whatever. We'll just have to agree that Russell Wilson, when given the keys to the cadillac, has the ability to make everyone around him better. Guys like Brady, Brees, Rodgers, the true elites in this league, have an ability to make their receivers better. They have the confidence to go to less heralded receivers consistently and this confidence is contagious. Russell Wilson has that quality and we're beginning to see it put out there on display. Something tells me that if Jermaine Kearse gets a mulligan for his inexcusable drop against the Vikings he'll make the most of it this time, since he now knows that as long as he continues to get open #3 will continue to look his way.
Finally, what's most impressive about Wilson to me, is his ability to cater his game to the type of game his team needs from him with little to no drop off in performance. He can be the efficient game manager, the gunslinger, the escape artist, the leader, and whatever else this team needs him to be on a play by play, game by game basis. He is that versatile. Minnesota came out fast and the Seahawks needed Wilson to keep them in the game and he did just that and with excellent proficiency. He nearly single handedly weathered the early storm for Seattle and kept them competitive until the defense and especially the running game were able to take over and milk this one away. All of this is not to say that Russell Wilson is perfect, no, he still makes his share of rookie mistakes. He still has that throw or two per game that sails high on him and he still has to develop some chemistry with guys like Doug Baldwin but these are minor issues that can be corrected and achieved through time. Hey wait, isn't that what his mentor Warren Moon told us to give Russellmania, time? In the words of Dave Gahan, "gonna take my time, I've got all the time in world" if it means letting Russell Wilson mature into a franchise quarterback. It seems he's well on his way.
The Inspiration: The smooth sounds of "Spottieottiedopaliscious" by Outkast
No comments:
Post a Comment