SEATTLE — Five years ago, Pete Carroll didn’t know a lot about the Seattle Seahawks’ roster he was inheriting, but he did single out one player and one position.
“I know we have a quarterback who has played really good football in his career,” Carroll said at his introductory press conference as head coach. “That is one of the key elements of putting together a team that has a chance to win right away. You’ve got to have a quarterback … The NFL is a quarterback-driven process, so the fact that we have Matt Hasselbeck here is a big factor to me.”
Even a defensive-minded coach who prefers a run-heavy offense knew as he came to the NFL that one position mattered more than any other, and five years after he became Seattle’s head coach, Carroll is on the verge of a second straight Super Bowl berth in large part because the Seahawks found their quarterback with the 75th pick of the 2012 draft.
The four teams still standing in the postseason all play different styles of football, they have different philosophies and personnel, different strengths and weaknesses. But all four teams that have won 13 games to get to this point have one thing in common: a star at the most important position in sports.
Seattle’s Russell Wilson, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck and New England’s Tom Brady all play the game differently, and they’re at different stages of their careers — Luck and Wilson are just beginning to hit their strides, Rodgers is in the middle of his prime and Brady is in the latter stages of a Hall of Fame-caliber career. But all four have won a lot of games, all four can take over a game when needed, and three already have Super Bowl rings.
There are a lot of ways to succeed in football, but in today’s NFL, as the last four teams standing remind us, high-level quarterback play is an absolute must.
“It’s a big job to be a quarterback in the NFL and it’s a lot of responsibility that comes with that,” Carroll said. “When you find a guy that takes hold of it and embraces all of those responsibilities and can do it successfully, then you got the real deal and you’re fortunate when you have that. It’s what we all cherished when we got (Wilson). They’re hard to find and hard to get.”
A win Sunday would make Wilson the first quarterback to play in two Super Bowls in his first three seasons, and back-to-back Super Bowl titles would put him in very elite company. Only seven quarterbacks — Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, John Elway and Brady — have won back-to-back Super Bowls as starters. Six of those seven are in the Hall of Fame, and Brady is a lock to be once he becomes eligible.
Yet Wilson is often left out of the conversation when people debate the game’s top quarterbacks. Brady and Peyton Manning are the old guard still getting it done, Rodgers is the current best, and many view Luck as the once-in-generation talent who is the NFL’s top young quarterback.
Wilson sometimes is the forgotten man in those discussions. He doesn’t put up big yardage or touchdown numbers because the Seahawks throw the ball less often than any team in the league, but Wilson does have great numbers when it comes to efficiency, not turning the ball over, and making explosive plays. No quarterback in the NFL had a higher percentage of his attempts result in completions of 20 or more yards than Wilson, and more importantly for the Seahawks, no quarterback in the history of the NFL has been a part of more victories through three seasons.
With as much as Wilson has meant to the Seahawks’ success, and with as many jaw-dropping escapes and big throws he has made, to call Wilson a game-manager as a way to downplay his ability is an admission that you don’t know much about football or just aren’t paying attention.
“He doesn’t fit the mold of anything that I thought previously would be a franchise quarterback,” said receiver Doug Baldwin, who played with Luck, a more prototypical quarterback in college. “And I think he still gets a lot of hate and discredit, I guess, because of the fact that we don’t throw the ball that often.
“However, what he’s asked to do in this offense he does it extremely well. He doesn’t turn the ball over, which he’s been hounded since day one — take care of the ball. He makes smart decisions with his legs, and also when he’s doing that, when he’s making smart decisions with his legs, he’s still looking down the field to make plays in the passing game. That’s huge for us as receivers because we know that any given play anything can happen. We could have a play and guys could be covered up and Russell can scramble out of the pocket and make something happen for us.
“To have that on your team, it’s extremely rare, and the capabilities that he has in terms of not turning the ball over when he does that is rare as well. When I look at it, I don’t necessarily think of him as a typical franchise quarterback, but for this team he’s our franchise quarterback because he does everything we need him to do and more.”
Wilson doesn’t worry about where he fits in the hierarchy of the four quarterbacks left in the postseason; instead he takes pride in the fact that he is one of the four quarterbacks still playing.
“The only thing I care about is winning,” Wilson said. “A lot of people talk about who’s the best quarterback and all that kind of stuff. I really don’t pay attention to it. I just try to do my job and I try to do my job better than anybody else and I try to do my job better than the other guy on the other side of the field.”
Rodgers, one of the guys on the other side of the field this week, is one of the best, as are the two playing in the AFC championship game. And regardless of what the yardage totals or his draft status says, so too is Wilson.
Five years ago, on his first day on the job, Carroll knew it was important that his team have a quarterback, even as he outlined a plan to run the ball and play great defense.
Asked about the notion of a franchise quarterback on Friday, Carroll said, “I don’t have a definition of a franchise quarterback. I’ve never used that phrase. I don’t have one.”
Carroll may not have a definition for a franchise quarterback, but like every team still standing, he has a franchise quarterback.
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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