For Russell Wilson It's Always Been About Winning

Former NFL coach Herman Edwards once said, famously, “you play to win the game.” Seahawks quarterbackRussell Wilson echoes it on the field and re-iterated it in his own way on the Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday.

“I want to be known as one of the greatest winners of all-time,” he said in his segment. “That’s why I play the game.”

The question was asked in reference to an article on NFL.com written by analyst Bucky Brooks that rated Wilson higher than Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The article also said Rodgers is overrated and that he’s not one of the top five quarterbacks going into the 2019 season.

There’s no doubting his talent on the field and his ability to lead Seattle’s offense. With Wilson under center, they’ve had a top-10 scoring offense in five of his seven seasons in the league.

However, his 83 total career wins between the regular season and the playoffs, and the two Super Bowl appearances weren’t all from him.

While he and the offense has been the focal point of the Seahawks for the past few years, he and the offense were largely carried by a top-five defense from 2012 through 2016, led by The Legion of Boom – Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas III, and Brandon Browner.

For the first half of his career, Wilson only had to do enough to stop them from losing. Now, post-LOB era, he’s often the only reason they win. Wilson embodies both sides of the coin when it comes to arguments about the viability of win-loss record to judge quarterbacks. It therefore comes as no surprise that his priorities lie in wins, and only wins.

As per the article, Brooks has Wilson ranked as the fifth-best quarterback in the league entering the 2019 campaign, with Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, and Patrick Mahomes ahead of him. Wilson also gave praise to the aforementioned quarterbacks along with Rodgers in the interview.

When asked if he wanted to know where he landed on the list, Wilson laughed and calmly replied, “It doesn’t matter to me.”

Wilson is also ranked 25th on the NFL’s Top 100 players of 2019, a drop from his 11th ranking a year ago. He’s made the countdown in each of his seven seasons in the league.

“Ratings and people opinions don’t really matter,” Wilson said in response to the slide. “It’s about what you do on the field and winning games. That’s the only thing I know.”