You have a point--I was thinking the same thing as I wrote it. But I wasn't cherry-picking so much as making a minor point, that what we witnessed during those years was an offense, despite all its success, that could be frustrating with an inability to move the ball consistently. Because I didn't have the 3-and-out stats, I referred to the third down conversion data. For all the success that Wilson had in 2015 to 2021 in the regular season, that success didn't translate to success in the post-season, and that had a lot to do with running an offense on schedule. That's what I was talking about. But yes, you have a point, and that disconnect between Wilson's stats and the offense's lack of success in the post-season has been the subject of debate here for a while.
Here you go.
There's been a lot of talk about how Pete and the offense would be lost without RW. There's no doubt that Russ is a supremely talented guy at what 'HE' does. He's a unique player and a gifted athlete and playmaker. But the fact remains that there have been holes in his game that, fortunately for...
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Not Cherry picking at all. To only look at the ranking of the offense over his tenure is to turn a blind eye to the fact that he was perpetually mediocre at best (with the exception of a few years - 2 I think, when he ran more ) when moving the chains through the air, and near dead last every year when targeting the middle of the field.
Russ is a paradox. Those who say he was a lead leading passer the entire time he was here aren't wrong.
And... if you were to attempt to identify how much of his success came NOT through executing a perfectly appropriate and successful play and rather abandoning successful plays in favor of buying himself the time HE needed to make a play, I'd wager they are disproportionately low.
That's important, because it points to a player who requires time and unique circumstances to play the position. Time not typically available behind a reasonable offensive line and circumstances that rely on him NOT making throws in traffic or in windows not necessarily open when the ball is released.
Brady, Manning, Brees, Rodgers, Mahomes... they all slow the game down by virtue of their ability to process quickly.
Russ slowed the game down by virtue not of his quick football mind, but by buying almost perennially league leading time between the snap and ball being released. He scrambled to avoid the throw on time when there was greater risk (and where he oft couldn't see the route or was just slow to release), and instead, relied on defenses eventually breaking coverage after 4 seconds or more to hit a wr that had found an opening. Note - there are few defenses in the league that can cover 3 receivers for more than 4 seconds without someone being open. Russ made a living in that timezone. Where the true elite qbs made hay immediately after the snap on presnap brilliance, Russ worked his magic way off script when cb's and safeties were twisted into knots trying to cover guys like Tyler and ADB.
That is NOT the kind of play SP will tolerate as a baseline.
Other stats that point to his specific requirements to play the position:
Time to throw
Depth of release
Avg depth of target
And the attached file below shows the success curve for Russ's passes on 3rd down during 2021 when folks hailed he still 'had it' and wqs a top passer in the league. Sure, the tds to ints looked great. Td's? Great. Yards and explosives? Awesome. And then there's the issue of his 3rd down production which wqs great ehn throwing bombs downfield ( read tons of yards and highlights) but sucked when just driving the ball to the guy at the sticks to move the chains and 5 to 15 yards.
Thats why only focusing on the big play numbers, completion percentage and yards is cherry picking - not identifying the holes. It's in the full picture of his game that you understand who he is.
A breakdown that covers pretty effectively his play style.... and this was before last year is here. And in hindsight, it's kind.
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