Wilson's First 3 Years Are Arguably the Best in NFL History

[HansGruber]

Agree with Willeye's points. Where Lynch excels is his ability to power through people and make those big plays. But honestly, how many plays do we see that? Lynch is a HOFer, and puts up those special plays every few weeks. But that's it.

When I look at Wilson, I see a guy who has actually had more of those performances.

Look at the Green Bay game and the Superbowl as just the latest few examples.

It wasn't Lynch creating those drives from nothing. He helped, sure. But it was Wilson out there making the magic happen.

When it comes down to it, Wilson is the most dangerous player on the most consistently successful team in over a decade. Call him whatever you want. I call him a winner. A threat. The biggest game changer I've seen since Cool Joe.

Against GB, we definitely had some things break our way. But that goes nowhere without Wilson capitalizing. His performances since he was a rookie have stunned me. I always know we're in the game.

Against GB, my friends were ready to leave early. People laughed at me when I said, we have Wilson, this isn't over. And he proved it.

Actions speak louder than anything else. You can't judge Wilson by his actions and logically come to any other conclusion than the fact that he is the biggest single threat in the game today. The biggest impact maker. The most consistently clutch QB, in the biggest way, of anyone playing in the NFL. To argue that is to admit that you're not really paying attention.

 

[KiwiHawk]

Unfortunately our elite defense has had many game losing melt downs including the super bowl.

Um, wait just a minute here. Our Super Bowl defense was down to the last of our defensive backs, who had to play injured and without substitutions, when it gave up a drive to a future hall-of-fame QB.

You're calling that a melt-down?

Harsh much?

 

[pmedic920]

Just sayin'

Carry on :{)

 

[Anthony!]

Maybe we should be asking if Lynch is elite. There is a lot of hype surrounding our running game but the truth is if you take away Wilson's rushing yards or make them average to other teams, our running game is somewhere around 10th in the league.

Lynch has averaged pretty close to 1300 yards per year nearly his whole career. That is impressive but not really elite. Even when Tjack was our starter he ran 1200 yards in 15 games. Pretty much on par with his other seasons. His outlying year was 2012 when he rushed for over 1500 yards. That was Wilson's rookie year and the league had to adjust to the read option but it was the threat of Wilson that enabled Lynch to have his best year and best year by far.

Last year we were #1 in the league in rushing stats with 2762 yards but Wilson put up 849 of them. Look around the league at other QB's and they average for the entire year somewhere close to 65 yards. That's the whole year, not one game. Take 785 yards off our stats and we are at 1977 yards on the year. That's giving Wilson 65 yards. That has us ranked #10 behind Philly.

The area I will give Lynch credit is that he has been putting up those numbers even when our opponents stack the box and the last couple years that was pretty much constant but in the same regard Wilson put up 849 yards against that same stacked box. Now the reason for the stacked box is pretty simple. There was no threat in our receiving corp to prevent it. Teams could stack the box and leave every corner on an island while bringing a safety up to help stop the run.

I was one who didn't want to give Lynch 12 mill. I believe we could have went with Turbin and Michael and used that 12 Mill to bring in an elite receiver. Would our running game suffer? Sure a little but we were already only 10th in the league without Wilson's numbers. Having Jimmy paired up with a Fitzgerald type receiver would open up our passing game and unload the box enabling Michael and Turbin to improve. Maybe we lose a couple hundred yards rushing but that would very likely be made up in passing and probably then some and our 3rd down and red zone efficiency would likely vastly improve.

It's easy for some like Ramsfan to try and credit our defense and running game for Wilson's success but the truth is without Wilson our running game is not impressive and as for the defense holding opponents to low scores so Wilson doesn't have to do much? Well that is a crock also because it completely discounts all the times our defense gave games away that Wilson put us in position to win. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Wilson obviously benefits from a good defense but it is not like he hasn't done his part. Nearly every time we have needed Wilson to take over a game he has come through. Unfortunately our elite defense has had many game losing melt downs including the super bowl.

All stats were taken off NFL.com

Some great points here. I have never really considered the argument that our rushing yards without Wilson would actually be 1977 yards, which places us in the #10 slot. Extremely clever argument.

The Hawks offense compiled 6012 yards last year...#9 in the NFL...Lynch had 1306 rushing yards. That's 21.7%. So who's responsible for the other 78.3% of the Hawks offense...not Lynch! And no other QB in the NFL could survive with Wilson's O-Line and receiver corps. And the O-Line and receiver corps is where the Hawks saved cap space that they used to build that #1 defense. Only Wilson allows them to take that path...not Lynch. Even when Lynch retires in the next year or two, the Hawks will be able to replace him with another RB or 2 that can easily run for 1200 yards per season. Wilson on the other hand is irreplaceable...there is no other QB in the NFL who can do what Wilson does for this team. The reality is, without Wilson, there is no #1 D.

I also wanted to point out, that the way Bevell used Harvin, played right into that stacked box. The same guys who were already there, focused on Wilson and Lynch, just had to stay aware of Harvin...but they were already in a good position to defend against Harvin. This is where Graham and a #1 WR that can run routes and go deep would be helpful, unlike Harvin. Geez, in hindsight, it seems so apparent that Harvin wasn't a good fit for our offense. I think Richardson was on the right path, but unfortunately he tore up his knee. Apparently, Matthews could have been another guy that might have been able to contribute down the stretch. If Richardson and Matthews had built up a little of a reputation in the regular season, perhaps defenses would have had to stop stacking the box as much, especially in the playoffs.

These are great points, about the money we save on offense because of Wilson allowing us to build that D, and everything else said. Lets look at Lynch for an example his 3 best rushing years came after we got Wilson, his 2 of his best receiving years came in the last 2 years. Wilson does indeed have as much effect on Lynch's success as Some think Lynch has a Wilson.

 

[Tical21]

Doesn't anybody remember the San Diego or Dallas games where all anybody could talk about was how ineffective our offense was when we didn't make Lynch the entire focal point of our gameplan? Symbiotic relationship, yep, mmm hmmmm.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

Doesn't anybody remember the San Diego or Dallas games where all anybody could talk about was how ineffective our offense was when we didn't make Lynch the entire focal point of our gameplan? Symbiotic relationship, yep, mmm hmmmm.

Actually both those games had more to do with our defense then offense. San Diego (Rivers) is stellar at the one thing that can beat our defense (an accurate short pass game). Dallas has the other thing that has a chance (stellar OL). Combine either with injuries to key players and there you go.

 

[theincrediblesok]

Doesn't anybody remember the San Diego or Dallas games where all anybody could talk about was how ineffective our offense was when we didn't make Lynch the entire focal point of our gameplan? Symbiotic relationship, yep, mmm hmmmm.

In that San Diego game we rushed a total of 13 times, if you take off Wilson's run, it would of been only 11 times. Plus Rivers was putting a Clinic on our defense like nobody's business, they couldn't get off the field. We should of ran more in that game we had almost 18 minutes of total offensive possession, that's horrible.

Dallas game I agree Lynch should of gotten more touches, who knows what was going on in that game, but regardless Wilson didn't look quite right, and Percy was getting stuff everywhere. Percy was also being showcased, forced fed until he ended up quitting. It was an odd game all around, it's like everyone just went clueless. This is the game that I hated the most because our front 7 were being held right in front of the refs and no calls. On that converted play by Terrance Williams, Bennet was getting held hard by number 68. It wasn't just that play there was more throughout the game, but if they didn't convert that play I think we win this game.

Look at the video below, the ref is looking right at Bennet and number 68 no call. Look at how long number 68 holds Bennet.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd1tApAxqQE[/youtube]

 

[Anthony!]

Doesn't anybody remember the San Diego or Dallas games where all anybody could talk about was how ineffective our offense was when we didn't make Lynch the entire focal point of our gameplan? Symbiotic relationship, yep, mmm hmmmm.

Actually both those games had more to do with our defense then offense. San Diego (Rivers) is stellar at the one thing that can beat our defense (an accurate short pass game). Dallas has the other thing that has a chance (stellar OL). Combine either with injuries to key players and there you go.

Or you could remember the Carolina game, Oakland, Arizona 1, Rams 2, Carolina Playoff game. All games we won with Lynch was not the focal point. The reality is we win more when Wilson and Lynch share the focal point than we do when its just Lynch. There is a reason Lynch gets most of his yards and better runs in the 2nd half. After a half of worrying about the read option, dealing with chasing after Wilson, the D line is tired. Now some of that is also Lynch but a lot of that is Wilson. In Lynchs best game of the seasons he had 140 yard rushing, Most of lynch yards started coming after Wilson started running to the tune of 107 yards. That's not to say Lynch is not a top back, he is, but as has been pointed out there is a reason his best season has been with Wilson. Wilsons duel threat ability makes it easier on Lynch, and with no other major threat on Offense but Lynch, Lynch helps Wilson too. They are the only 2 grade A threats we have on offense. Well till Graham that is.