There's a lot of fawning and hyperbole and "Best Seahawks QB ever" talk about Russell Wilson right now. He's being compared favorably to Matt Hasslebeck, people get offended that people are comparing a rookie qb to the greatest Seahawks quarterback ever, round and round we go.

But, nonetheless, I'm going to compare the two for one simple purpose.

My biggest gripe with Hasslebeck, and I dug the guy, was he wasn't a closer. He wasn't the guy that was going to win on the road in the playoffs. Hell, he wasn't even going to win against good teams on the road in the regular season. I think he got a little rattled, became too careful, and sometimes rushed things a bit. He did a lot of great things too and had a few iconic performances be forgotten because of the errors of his teammates(2003 Wild Card game comes to mind). I loved Hasslebeck, gutsy as hell, absolutely lethal when he was on. But he wasn't a closer. A closer doesn't clam up in OT against Chicago in 2006. A closer says, "BS holding call? I don't give a shit" and throws a touchdown on third and long in the Super Bowl after the Locklear hold instead of a horrible interception.

I've always wanted a closer at quarterback. A guy who could take a team 97 yards against a legendary defense in a hostile environment when few things had gone right all day and drive down for a winning touchdown. Then, some crazy shit happens, and he has to do it again. Guess what? He does it.

The Seahawks have never had that guy. Dilfer never did it, Moon never did it, Kitna, Friesz, Mirer, Toretta, Mcguire, Stouffer, Jeff Kemp, they never pulled something like that off. The Seahawks haven't won a game like that, on the road, against a good, not mediocre, a legitimately good team, coming from behind in the final minutes, since 1990 at KC(look it up, 22 years of no clutch road victories). Krieg was hot and cold. He'd win you games and lose you games like that.

As some of you may remember, I was extremely opposed to starting Russell Wilson during the preseason and through the first month of the season. I think I might have been wrong. I'm not going to try and qualify his greatness, or anything like that. With that said, Wilson has shown me something that will stick with me for a long time. When a lot of players shrink away, Wilson was cold blooded, and it permeated the entire offense. The Seahawks don't typically win games like that. But they did on Sunday. And that's pretty damn exciting.

Russ will go down as our best ever. By a long shot and I loved Hass too!

Loved Hass, but Zorn was the greatest Seahawk QB ever and Wilson reminds me a lot of Zorn. Too early to anoint him better, but time will tell.

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All this talk about him being the "best".

I dunno about any of that.

But I do know he is "The Most Exciting" and by a HUGE margin.

I can see that. Perhaps Zorn with a better supporting cast.

Both clutch, both exciting as HELL to watch (like Hans Gruber said!). I'll take it (thank you football gods!).

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If I had to choose between Zorn (in his prime, pre broken leg) and Wilson....errr.....tough call there. I'd have to think for a while. Maybe that's the teenage homer deep down inside me still drooling after our first beloved QB (maaaan was I PISSED when Knox elevated Krieg to starter). Hard pick THAT would be, no way getting around that.

I almost kinda think I'd still pick Wilson.....not sure though.

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"John Schneider is...half ninja assassin, half shark. This
man does not screw around...So glad he is our GM."
- PGunning101

that is 3 games in row now making me believe in RW (especially next year as well). 3games now where scrambles and keepers are better timed, more controlled and making sense. He's also refining getting out of pocket trouble while still making reads often, then hitting receivers on the numbers or leading them with throws. it is exciting to have some unknown ceiling at this point.

Now Zorn is in the mix? I'm staying away from RW vs. Hass stuff until some time settles, our hawks are lucky to have had all.

This is what I remember.

Jim Zorn was indeed VERY exciting to watch but no way, no how, could Zorn throw on the run as accurately as we have seen Wilson throw. He just didn't have that skill set. And Zorn ran great when he burst out of the pocket. Wilson is showing that he can move within the pocket and maintain his vision down field looking for that receiver to get open and then he delivers the ball. That was not Zorn's strength. He more more razzle dazzle. The fans loved Jimmy but most knowledgeable football fans recognized his shortcomings.

Knox replaced Zorn with Kreig because Zorn was very inconsistent. He couldn't move the chains as consistently as Knox wanted them to move. Knox was all about consistency on offense... not big strike.

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"Wilson will come in there pissing lightning and crapping thunder! Watch out!" ... Tech Worlds, 5/9/2012

Endzorn, 3 min. later... "Football aside, I would pay money to see that. I'm serious."

Moved to Seattle in 1980. Hawks fan for 33 years and counting.

where i'll agree , Russ has not earned the "greatest of all time" label yet.. but he will... i don't think anyone can look at what this young man has done up to this point and say, it's just a fluke.. i think what we're seeing on the field week in and week out, is what we'll get week in and week out.. don't see a sophomore slump coming next year, it's not in his DNA... all i see is this guy improving every week.. just when you think he can't possibly do better as a rookie, he comes out and does it.. defense can't get a stop and win us a game, he says go sit down, i got it... he's special, you can see it, if you weren't a believer before, you should be now..

he is the real deal, and as long as seattle keeps weapons around for him, he will shatter all standing QB records...IMO

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On to the Next Episode

DangeRuss >>>> ALL

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Wilson is the only quarterback who, when the pocket crumbles and he has to start scrambling, I start to expect a big play. No other Seahawks quarterback has evoked feelings like that watching them. He can not only scramble quite elusively for the first down, he is also very accurate and safe when throwing it. Two passes - the (non)TD to Edwards as he was falling forward, and the toss for the leaping grab by Baldwin by the sidelines - are great examples of this from yesterday's game alone. He doesn't get stupid with the ball under pressure. And that is what distinguishes him from previous Seahawks quarterbacks like Hasselbeck.

Hasselbeck is still my favorite Seahawk, but Wilson is quickly rising up that list for me. He's my favorite current one already. Is he going to be the best Seahawk quarterback ever? Heh. We're a long, long ways from that folks. Let's not attack that Kool-Aid glass so hard we bite into it and shatter shards into our mouths. He's very promising, and I'll be singing his praises every damn game. He has some large shoes to fill yet. Thankfully, he's got what it takes to fill them.

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Really nice post, Seahawks2k.

I know exactly what you mean about Russell being a closer and mostly every other Seahawk QB in team history not being able to win us this game. I might disagree that this is the most clutch road win in the past 20 seasons, but I'm partial since I was at the Giants game last season, but regardless I agree with you almost 100%. As much as I love Matt, I don't think he pulls off the 2 drives that we saw on Sunday.

And I also agree with HansGruber. I'd say that Russell is the most exciting Seahawks QB of all-time as well as the one with the most potential, at this point.

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Its a bit early to even call him a "closer"... he had the ball in his hands in all 5 losses with a chance to win and didnt. However, he had the ball in his hands in all 5 losses with a chance to win. That says as much about him as anything. He has this team poised to win games every week. I love that about him (and the team).

the Chicago win was a big one. Finally did it on the road.

It is kind of hard to really make an accurate comparison simply because the teams and ERA of football are so drastically different.

The only year Hasselbeck had a team comparable to this one he took us to a super bowl and in that game where you say he should have ignored the Locklear hold and thrown another 1st down, ignores that is exactly what he did. He threw a 39 yard pass to Jackson and hit him perfectly at the one yard line but Jackson failed to get his left foot down and it was egregious because it would have been easy for him to do. Unfortunately Jackson caught the ball with his right foot in bounds and momentum carrying him towards the sidelines and he made no attempt to drag his left foot, he simply took the next step and went out of bounds.

I love what Wilson is doing right now and I'm pretty confident we have only seen the tip of the iceberg but ignoring that we were even in that Chicago game when we had no running game and a below average crew of receivers, is really not a fair assessment. You can also use games like the Redskins playoff game where Alexander went down the first time he touched the ball and Matt carried the team to victory or the NO playoff game in Seattle were not only were we given zero chance to win, we went down by 10 points twice before Matt took over the game and that was with guy's like BMW and Ruvell Martin to throw to.

The future is very bright for Wilson but things can change in a heart beat and if we were to lose Okung, Unger and Lynch for what ever reason and Wilson was forced to throw the ball 45 times a game, would he still look like he did against Chicago in the last two drives? I don't know that he would but I do believe he is capable of becoming that guy. It's just a little premature yet to crown him best ever.

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My biggest gripe with Hasselbeck was that he was physically limited and thus relied too much on his teammates for success (outside of his peak 2007 season). Nobody understands just how perfectly his team carried him during the Holmgren era. OF course, we knew it right away when they didn't.

English and I have been pounding the table forever for a dynamic guy who will make plays when the first one breaks down. You need arms and legs to do that. That's why I was perfectly content with Hasselbeck leaving; despite being a warrior and a professional, I hated the QB philosophy that he represented and loved to see it disappear. It's also why I was scared of Flynn and blatantly wanted someone to knock him down the depth chart - he's another "high-maintenance QB", and this offense wasn't built for that. I'm still shocked that PC even signed him.

And now we're seeing a QB who's both athletic and cerebral. Awesome combination. Not to say that Wilson is independent - he'd be struggling if not for his chemistry with the WR's and for the threat of the run, which is so firmly established now that Chicago's #1 defense self-destructed over it in clutch time. But neither does he lose his head when the pocket breaks down. As Sailor put it, Wilson has completely changed what we expect to see when protection fails. His ability to make at least small positive plays in such moments has kept us alive this season.

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In all seriousness (taking off my youth tinted glasses) he IS more accurate than Zorn was throwing on the run and less prone to panicking than any Hawks QB I can remember. One DOES have to give Hass his props tho, I think he just may have been able to pull off those last two drives Sunday, at least in his prime. He was pretty clutch at times, running a pretty mean 2 minute drill, albeit when everyone on the O was firing on all cylinders at the same time.

That was what always made TJ look so bad in contrast last year. It wasn't all that far into the season when I immediately started getting a sense of dread whenever we were playing from behind, particularly with little time left on the clock.

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"John Schneider is...half ninja assassin, half shark. This
man does not screw around...So glad he is our GM."
- PGunning101

speaking of Hass, who is my favorite QB up to this point... remember when he had a line and had time in the pocket he was as deadly as anyone.. problem with that is , he was constantly running for his life, and he was no where near as effective as RW scrambling and making plays on the run...

but until RW wins a playoff game, and/or gets us to the promise land, hass will be my all time best seahawk QB.

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On to the Next Episode

He led the team on a game winning drive against Detroit which the defense, and if not for Braylon Edwards/Doug Baldwin drops in Arizona, that'd have been a win, too. The Rams can go either way (just kind of crappy), I suppose, and the Miami loss was just a collection of crap at the end there.

As for the OP, I agree that Wilson is a much more exciting QB, but to unseat Hasselbeck as 'king', Wilson needs to be the leader of a Super Bowl team (and even better when Seattle comes home with the Lombardi.)

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like i said... a bit early. But he has the team poised each week. (one could say the defense saved him against Carolina and kept us in the San Fran game)
And now they've finally finished one. I think its a huge step. One that even Hass had trouble with.

Not completely accurate. Against Detroit he had the ball and DID finish with what should have been a game winning TD. Instead the defense folded like a wet cardboard box.

The 49ers game is the only one in which he wasn't able to get a final drive going. Against Miami he stalled, ST. Louis our TE fell down and against the Cards our WR couldn't hold on. But those first half performances are history he's made steady progress since them. Hopefully he continues to gain ground throughout the coarse of this year.