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13 May 2012

Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, and the Difficulty of Comparisons

Over on his own site, our new prospect scouting writer Matt Waldman has some thoughts about Russell Wilson, comparing him to Drew Brees, and what that says about player comparisons in general. Comparing player style doesn't mean that you're saying Player A is just as good as Player B.

Posted by: Matt Waldman on 13 May 2012

4 comments, Last at 22 May 2012, 11:44pm by HawkFan2012

Comments

1
by Insancipitory :: Mon, 05/14/2012 - 1:51am

While the author takes great care to be precise, I think there's some room to improve the accuracy. Most of it wrt popular local expectations for Wilson.

Seattle is at best Thursday to Tuesday for the Seahawks. Outside of that the city really doesn't care. Die hard fans do, but they're not insufferable except on perhaps message boards. If Wilson sits two years with some combination of Flynn and/or Jackson playing not terrible, the gnashing of teeth will be less-so than it might be elsewhere. And when it occurs helpful reminders of Hasslebeck's growing pains will no doubt follow.

As long as he's not beating his girlfriend, being beaten into a coma, or just being terrible the cancerous pressure the author imagines isn't going to be there.

The other thing is Pete Carroll preaches non-stop competition. Eveyone, all the time; he mentions it practically every press conference. Just because Mr. Wilson would be allowed to out two veterans, one of which played pretty well last year while his recievers and o-line were decimated by injuries, doesn't mean we should expect it.

Swapping Hasslebeck for T-Jack was an absurdly bold move, while skepticism was common, withering criticism wasn't.

2
by Podge (not verified) :: Mon, 05/14/2012 - 5:57am

"Seattle is at best Thursday to Tuesday for the Seahawks"

I think I get what you are trying to say, that the city is only really interested in the Seahawks around the time of their games, but Thursday to Tuesday only leaves Wednesday when the city isn't interested.

3
by Insancipitory :: Mon, 05/14/2012 - 9:31am

If they're 4-12, it's basically gameday only, and that's because of the traffic. The city will generally just take the season off so to speak.

Also, I blame Thursday night football for ruining the metaphore.

4
by HawkFan2012 (not verified) :: Tue, 05/22/2012 - 11:44pm

Sorry but I dont see where he talks about local expectations anywhere. He mentions the problem with Brees comparisons if people expect Wilson to be as good as Brees or put up Brees numbers; however this is not inreference to Seattle fans, fantasy football owners or any particular subset.