Stat of the Week: What if Russell Wilson was better than Peyton Manning for 75% of the season?
I'll never be able to make a "Russell Wilson 4 MVP" argument without being called biased, or simply without actually being biased (I am biased) but that doesn't mean we should throw the debate out of the window.
How much closer is the gap since Manning threw seven touchdowns in Week 1, for instance? How much closer if we look at the last 10 games, which comprises 71.4% of the season so far?
Manning: 7-3, 276-of-424, 65.1%, 3,341 yards, 31 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 7.88 Y/A, 8.28 AY/A, 103.7 passer rating.
Wilson: 8-2, 176-of-261, 65.9%, 2,291 yards, 18 touchdowns, five interceptions, 8.77 Y/A, 9.29 AY/A, 108.6 passer rating.
The amount of work that Manning is asked to do is far greater than the amount of work that Wilson is asked to do, on gameday. Because Manning doesn't have a run game to work with? Well, no, not really. The Broncos have handed the ball off (not including QB keepers) 380 times. The Seahawks have handed it off to their backs and receivers 359 times.
Yes, Denver has actually run the ball with their backs more often than Seattle has.
Mostly it just comes down to the fact that Manning has 183 more offensive snaps than Wilson does. Why? Better defense [for Wilson], better field position, fewer plays run, more of a field position battle, and significantly higher yards-per-attempt by Wilson.
Because the best reason to give a player the MVP award is based on how good or bad his own defense is.
Of course, I'm not discounting the first four games of the season and I'm not dismissing Manning as the favorable choice for MVP. Over the first four weeks of the year, Manning had 16 touchdowns and no interceptions and for the entire season, his numbers eclipse everyone else's numbers entirely. He's going to hold the all-time single season record for touchdown passes and the only two times that a player has thrown more than 31 touchdowns between their fifth and 14th games of the season (as noted in those stats above) was Tom Brady in 2007 and Manning himself, back in 2004.
I'm just saying... isn't it interesting that Wilson could wind up having outproduced (in some major categories) perhaps the greatest quarterback that's ever lived? During his prime? Is that not... fun, amazing, dope, cool, radical, tubular, worth noting?
I think it is.
