Why doesn’t Russell Wilson ever get hurt? I understand that he’s got a good feel for avoiding punishment by sliding and stepping out of bounds, but he is taking a decent number of hits.
Yet he rolls on. They drafted him in 2012, and he’s started all of their ensuing 128 regular-season games. He’s been banged up a few times, but he’s always been able to start the following week.
It’s not as if Marino-Manning type guy who just gets rid of the ball before defenders get near him. He’s the only quarterback in league history who’s been sacked 40-plus times seven years in a row. And he’s got 720 career rushing attempts.
The league tracks quarterback hits. That is, there are sacks, but there are also plays where the quarterback gets hit just after throwing the ball. The Seahawks have been a bottom-5 team in that category in each of the last five years.
Over the last three years, Seattle has allowed its quarterback to be hit on almost 20 percent of its pass plays. That’s the most in the league. (And on the chart below, quarterbacks hits are taken only from passing plays – runs aren’t included.)
Seems to me that Wilson definitely has beaten the odds by not getting hurt at some point in the last eight years.
| QUARTERBACK HIT RATES (last 3 years) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offense | '17 | '18 | '19 | Pct |
| New Orleans | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9.9% |
| Oakland | 1 | 15 | 1 | 10.9% |
| Baltimore | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11.3% |
| Pittsburgh | 4 | 2 | 16 | 11.7% |
| Cincinnati | 6 | 9 | 8 | 12.2% |
| LA Rams | 12 | 8 | 6 | 12.6% |
| New England | 11 | 4 | 12 | 12.9% |
| Carolina | 9 | 10 | 18 | 13.6% |
| Chicago | 20 | 7 | 10 | 14.0% |
| LA Chargers | 8 | 19 | 17 | 14.4% |
| Kansas City | 14 | 23 | 5 | 14.5% |
| Detroit | 15 | 12 | 19 | 14.6% |
| Cleveland | 32 | 5 | 4 | 14.7% |
| Minnesota | 18 | 16 | 11 | 14.7% |
| NY Giants | 5 | 18 | 26 | 14.9% |
| Green Bay | 23 | 17 | 13 | 15.2% |
| Jacksonville | 13 | 27 | 9 | 15.4% |
| Denver | 21 | 14 | 21 | 15.6% |
| Tennessee | 10 | 13 | 30 | 15.8% |
| Tampa Bay | 17 | 21 | 22 | 15.8% |
| Dallas | 16 | 25 | 14 | 15.9% |
| NY Jets | 25 | 11 | 28 | 16.4% |
| Philadelphia | 26 | 20 | 20 | 16.4% |
| Indianapolis | 31 | 6 | 25 | 16.6% |
| Arizona | 28 | 29 | 3 | 16.8% |
| Atlanta | 19 | 22 | 29 | 16.9% |
| Buffalo | 24 | 26 | 23 | 17.2% |
| Washington | 22 | 24 | 27 | 17.6% |
| San Francisco | 27 | 31 | 15 | 17.9% |
| Miami | 7 | 30 | 32 | 18.5% |
| Houston | 29 | 32 | 24 | 19.4% |
| Seattle | 30 | 28 | 31 | 19.8% |
—Ian Allan
10 Reader Comments:
Paul Desimone
Ben Hogevoll
Ben Hogevoll
KEVIN KNIGHT
KEVIN KNIGHT
Yaesha Newman
Richard Loppnow
He takes sacks because, along with those all scramblers take (spin right into a pass rusher, get stopped 1 yard behind rather than 1 yard over the line of scrimmage) Russell hates giving up on a play. So rather than throw the ball away he'll look for an open area to run into and then take another look down field. If still nothing there, then it's often too late to throw the ball away, and he crumples really well. Both avoids the nasty hit and the fumble.
Nick Roth
Jim Kontopoulos
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Ben Hogevoll