NFL: Why the Andrew Luck-Russell Wilson debate is laughable
How highly do I think of Andrew Luck?
Put it this way: For eight years, I watched every snap Peyton Manning played for the Indianapolis Colts. Over the course of those eight seasons, I watched him make eight Pro Bowl rosters and five All-Pro teams. I watched him win four of his now five NFL MVPs. I watched him win at least 12 games every season from 2003 through 2009. And I watched him win a Super Bowl (XLI) and take the Colts to another.
Yet, if I had to choose, I would rather today’s Andrew Luck quarterback my team than 2004 Peyton Manning, 2005 Peyton Manning, 2006 Peyton Manning, 2009 Peyton Manning, or any Peyton Manning.
Get the idea?
Luck is special. He’s unlike any quarterback I’ve ever seen. Coming into the NFL out of Stanford in 2012, he had the highest expectations a quarterback has had this side of John Elway, and he’s lived up (and then some) to every single one.
But maybe I’m crazy for already preferring him to Manning. Maybe he’s not yet in the Manning-Tom Brady-Drew Brees-Aaron Rodgers league of elite. I will readily admit that it’s at least up for debate.
But one thing is not debatable: Luck is the best of the NFL’s young quarterbacks.
He’s much better than Colin Kaepernick. He’s much better than Cam Newton. He’s now clearly much better than Robert Griffin III.
And, yes, he’s much better than even Russell Wilson.
Of course, not everyone agrees with that last part. Among those who don’t is Chris Harris, the Denver Broncos defensive back who said Sunday — after the Broncos were beaten by Wilson’s Seattle Seahawks — that Wilson is better than Luck, “no question.”
Now, Chris, I’m willing to cut you some slack and give you a pass. Moments before you muttered those asinine words, you had a front row seat for Seattle’s game-winning, 13-play, 80-yard drive in overtime, led by Wilson. So perhaps you were simply a prisoner of a very powerful moment.
Or, perhaps you really meant it. I think you did, just like I think that many others truly believe that Wilson is the better quarterback. And I just don’t get it.
I like Russell Wilson. He’s a nice player, and he’s just what the Seahawks need at the quarterback position. But he isn’t in the same stratosphere as Luck.
On a Seahawks team that features arguably the best defense since the ‘85 Chicago Bears and arguably the NFL’s most feared running back, Wilson plays the role of an overqualified game manager.
Last season, Wilson never attempted 35 passes in a single game. Luck attempted at least 35 throws in 10 different games, and four times he attempted 40 or more throws.
Luck finished 2013 with 570 pass attempts. Wilson? 407.
The discrepancy isn’t an accident. Luck shoulders far more responsibility than Wilson does. In 2013, the Colts ranked 20th in both total defense and rushing, meaning they relied on Luck to virtually win games on his own — which he often did.
The Seahawks, meanwhile, were first overall in total defense and allowed a league-low 14.4 points per game.
Only once in 2013 did Richard Sherman and Co. allow more than 24 points in a game. That was against — wait for it — Luck’s Colts in Week 5! And, shocking many, Indianapolis prevailed, 34-28. An Andrew Luck-orchestrated 14-play, 86-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter — coupled with a late Wilson interception — sent the Seahawks back to Seattle with their first loss of the 2013 season.
It was one of 11 game-winning drives (including playoffs) since the beginning of the 2012 season engineered by Luck, who miraculously led the Colts to a second straight 11-5 season in 2013.
Yes, miraculously, because neither the 2012 Colts nor the 2013 Colts were good football teams, yet Luck won 11 games with both and took both to the playoffs. Rivers McCown of Football Outsiders suggested in August that, aside from Luck, Indianapolis has the NFL’s worst roster.
McCown won’t get an argument from me.
I know this much: had Luck played as poorly last season as Wilson did down the stretch, the Colts likely would have missed the postseason.
It gets lost in the shuffle, but Wilson struggled badly in Seattle’s final four regular season games, when he completed under 58 percent of his throws, threw just four touchdowns (to three interceptions), and never eclipsed 206 yards passing. Against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 16, he went 11-of-27 for only 108 yards and finished the game with a QBR (scale 1-to-100) of 11.5. That’s about as bad as it gets.
The trend continued into the playoffs. Wilson stunk it up (9-of-18, 108 yards, 25.9 QBR) in the Divisional Round against the New Orleans Saints and was almost as bad (16-of-25, 215 yards, 38.9 QBR) in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers.
But, thanks to its defense andMarshawn Lynch going full-out Beast Mode inback-t0-back weeks, Seattle survived and advanced to Super BowlXLIII, where theSeahawks humiliated Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos, 43-8.
And even though Wilson’s stat line in the Super Bowl was a good one — he was 18-of-25 for 206 yards and two touchdowns — I wasn’t that impressed. The Seahawks had zero drives longer than 60 yards and Wilson didn’t register a completion longer than 20 yards until late in the third quarter, by which point the game was already over.
The real MVP of Super Bowl XLVIII wasn’t Malcolm Smith. It was Seattle’s entire defense, which was dominant from the moment it stepped onto the field, making Wilson’s job that much easier and removing any pressure he may have felt.
Sorry, Russell, but I’m not sold you should even be mentioned in the same breath as Luck.
Of course, I’m not ignoring what we all witnessed in the Colts-Patriots Divisional Round meeting, when the New England defense picked off Luck four times. Two of those interceptions came in garbage time and, as per usual, Luck was devoid of any help. So it’s hard to fault him for perhaps forcing a few throws that he shouldn’t have.
And must I remind you what Luck had done the previous week? You know, when he played the best second half of football I’ve ever seen a quarterback play and completed the second biggest comeback in NFL playoff history.
The game was vintage Andrew Luck. And it was something Russell Wilson never could have pulled off.
To me, the game also served as the moment Luck officially arrived as an elite quarterback.
And through three games in 2014, he already looks like he has indeed made that next step.
Luck leads the NFL with nine touchdown passes and has completed over 68 percent of his throws. Just last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was 31-of-39 for 370 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions, earning him AFC Player of the Week honors.
But a new season hasn’t meant a new Colts defense. They rank 29th overall and even allowed 458 total yards against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night in Week 2.
Still, if there’s one quarterback capable of overcoming such an egregious defense, it’s most definitely Andrew Luck. And it’s certainly not Russell Wilson.
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