Member-only story

Goodbye Russell Wilson

Breaking up is never easy, but sometimes necessary.

John Polonis
4 min readMar 10, 2022
Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks
Source: Wikimedia Commons

For Seattle sports fans, the news of Russell Wilson leaving Seattle in a trade with the Denver Broncos ranks up there with Griffey, Payton, and Ichiro all leaving town. Breaking up is hard for fans. It has become the norm for those of us that root for Seattle teams.

As much as I hate to admit it though, the Russell Wilson trade is good for the Seahawks and Seattle. Over the past couple years it felt like Wilson had become Rocky in Rocky III. The guy in love with himself, who had grown soft and obsessed with his superstar lifestyle.

He no longer threatened opposing teams with his feet, averaging just 13 rushing yards per game in 2021. He had previously averaged over 30 rushing yards per game in six of his previous nine seasons (including 53 in 2014).

Wilson also had suffered a “significant finger injury” and underwent surgery on October 8, 2021. Regardless of what anyone says, significant injuries on throwing hands are never good for quarterbacks. I never trusted that Wilson was back at 100%.

His overall total QBR (quarterback rating) and AV (Approximate Value) in 2021 were career lows at 54.7 and 12, respectively. For context, Josh Allen, quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, had a 2022 QBR of 60.7 and an AV of 19.

--

--

No responses yet