Scorpion05":2fs2ygou said:
I have two, honest questions. And I’m not asking you to change your mind:
1. Some of the throws Russell has missed, after watching film would you say some of it is due to not trusting his protection, and not being able to step into the pocket?
2. The sacks he took, after watching film would you say those were quick developing routes where Wilson had a quick out and didn’t take it? Or were those long developing routes where Wilson had to hold onto the ball
Your points are fair, but only if it matches with what’s on film
Two totally valid questions. :2thumbs: (EDIT: and sorry for the wall of text this turned into!)
1) Yeah, really every QB is going to miss more throws when they're facing interior pressure. Wilson is no different in that regard. I also think standing in the pocket and getting smashed in the mouth is WAY overrated.
That said, I *think* the question you're asking (and truly do correct me if I'm wrong) is if Wilson has been mentally scarred from playing behind a bad offensive line for so long?
If that is the question (and again, correct me if I'm wrong), I don't think so. He's had the same areas for improvement with regards to using the pocket and manipulating the pocket since first entering the league. I've honestly watched every (non-preseason) NFL game he has ever played, and from what I've seen, he hasn't gotten any worse in these areas. Instead, he has stayed the same. If he has gotten scarred from bad o-line play this would have gotten worse, and I just don't think it has.
I don't want to be too critical because I think he's a VERY good QB, but his play in relation to the pocket has, in my opinion, always been probably the weakest trait of his game. He sometimes steps into the pocket, but compared to most QBs he doesn't do so nearly as much, and prefers to hang out above it (this is what Cam Newton does), or to try to escape from it horizontally (or in the worst case scenarios, as he has always done throughout his career and did twice yesterday, going backwards back across it and then sometimes taking 15-20 yard sacks that nobody else ever really ends up taking).
I also understand why he doesn't step into the pocket too much. It has nothing to with his height (see the similarly height challenged Brees who is a goddamn surgeon from the pocket), but rather has to do with his struggles with feeling pressure (more on this below). When he is in the pocket he doesn't have the feel to manipulate it with strategic steps to move rushers out of his throwing lanes (see Brees and Brady -- two of the best at it). Instead, unless he can immediately step in and throw he's like a chicken with his head cut off, and ping pongs around until he runs into somebody or can find his old friend (the horizontal escape) and make more room for himself to find someone who is open.
As for feeling pressure, it's the other area in which he is weaker than the other very good QBs, IMO. He's obviously the best in the league at making rushers miss, but from his perch above the pocket he still seems to mostly be relying on an internal clock rather than feeling pressure. What this means is that regardless of if he's facing pressure or not, he hits zero on his internal clock and starts to bail (again, horizontally or backwards), which puts his offensive lineman in a TON of conflict, and leads to unnecessary sacks (such as the three he blamed himself for yesterday).
VERY SINCERELY, he can still maybe improve in these areas (example: Ben Roethlisberger did in his 30s), but these things aren't the fault of a bad o-line: he struggles with them no more today than he did in his first and second year in the league. (I think we maybe just see them *a bit* more because over his career his OCs have taken the kids gloves off of him a little bit more -- e.g. less of those WR pop screens that Hawks fans hated so much, which get used as plays off for young QBs).
2) This is really impossible to say without being at the game and being able to see the whole field, or without watching the All-22. I've never been to a Seahawks game and haven't watched any All-22 for a couple years now. We definitely don't see those zero-time routes (pop wr screens) as much (which makes sense -- those are QB training wheel plays) or some of the three step and throw routes (for QBs not in shotgun) like slants as much as we used to (although to be fair, for as accurate as he is he always seemed to be bizarrely a bit inaccurate on those three step and throw slant routes, which is why I think they were taken out).
Basically, from the TV angle we're almost always left to guess about the route combos as based on where the ball goes (we almost never see the backside route combinations), so we're kind of left to guess as based on where the QB is looking and what he's doing. I don't really see Wilson looking coverage off as much as one might like, or seeing him go through his progressions as much as some QBs do (he usually bails instead).
From that we're left to guess that he's either breaking from the play design and not hitting his read windows sometimes (e.g. he doesn't take the designed pass, and holds onto the ball instead), or the Hawks are calling plays that take a stupidly long time to develop. I doubt it's the latter.
JUST TO REITERATE THOUGH: these are areas that he has, in my view, always struggled with, and seems to continue to struggle with. If we were talking about touch, deep ball accuracy and placement, escapability, ability to brush off poor throws and so on, he's right up there with Rodgers as the best in the league, IMO.
