Russell Wilson turns 37 during the season, but the Giants' new starting quarterback is saying he wants to play five more years. Based on the last four, he wouldn't have been missed much if he played a couple fewer.
As NFL quarterback go, he's been fine. Respectable even, statistically. Most notably, in the last four seasons (played with three different teams), he's thrown 83 touchdowns and just 30 interceptions. That nearly 3-to-1 ratio is part of why the Broncos, Steelers and now Giants have brought him in to lead their offenses. He won't be bleeding turnovers.
But he does bring some negatives to the table. For one thing, Wilson has taken 166 sacks over the past four seasons (42 per year). That's more than any other quarterback over that time frame. His sack percentage of over 9 percent is worse than every regular starter over that four-year span but Justin Fields and Deshaun Watson. "Not sacked as often as Fields and Watson" isn't a great selling point. Fans at MetLife this year, where both Fields and Wilson will be plying their trade on Sundays, can look forward to seeing a whole lot of sacks.
And as a fantasy quarterback, Wilson has been pretty modest in recent years, tending to be a conservative game manager (with his last two coaches, Sean Payton and Mike Tomlin, asking him to do less). Of the 25 quarterbacks to start at least half the time over the past four seasons, only five have generated fewer total yards per start than Wilson. Two of those guys are even older (Rodgers, Tannehill), and another is Fields (more great news for paying customers at MetLife, neither home offense should be particularly high-octane). The others either will or may be backups all season (Mac and Daniel Jones). Table sorted by yards per start.
| QUARTERBACKS PER GAME, 2021-2024 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | PYd | TDP | RYd | TDR | Pts | TYds |
| Patrick Mahomes | 66 | 275.8 | 1.98 | 21.7 | .12 | 24.8 | 297.5 |
| Tom Brady | 34 | 294.4 | 2.00 | 2.4 | .09 | 23.6 | 296.8 |
| Josh Allen | 67 | 249.7 | 1.91 | 38.5 | .61 | 27.9 | 288.2 |
| Joe Burrow | 59 | 276.5 | 2.15 | 11.3 | .15 | 24.6 | 287.7 |
| Lamar Jackson | 57 | 227.6 | 1.72 | 57.3 | .25 | 25.6 | 284.9 |
| Justin Herbert | 64 | 261.8 | 1.66 | 15.4 | .13 | 22.2 | 277.2 |
| Dak Prescott | 53 | 260.4 | 2.02 | 11.8 | .09 | 23.0 | 272.2 |
| Brock Purdy | 36 | 256.7 | 1.72 | 13.3 | .22 | 22.4 | 270.0 |
| Kirk Cousins | 55 | 265.6 | 1.78 | 4.3 | .05 | 21.3 | 269.9 |
| Kyler Murray | 50 | 236.1 | 1.38 | 33.1 | .32 | 22.8 | 269.2 |
| Jalen Hurts | 62 | 219.5 | 1.27 | 44.8 | .84 | 25.6 | 264.3 |
| Jared Goff | 65 | 259.8 | 1.77 | 3.6 | .05 | 20.9 | 263.4 |
| Geno Smith | 52 | 246.1 | 1.44 | 15.6 | .10 | 20.3 | 261.7 |
| Tua Tagovailoa | 53 | 255.4 | 1.68 | 6.1 | .04 | 20.4 | 261.4 |
| Matthew Stafford | 57 | 257.9 | 1.67 | 2.8 | .02 | 20.0 | 260.7 |
| Derek Carr | 59 | 243.2 | 1.47 | 5.4 | .02 | 18.8 | 248.6 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 60 | 230.3 | 1.15 | 18.1 | .23 | 19.6 | 248.3 |
| Sam Darnold | 35 | 228.2 | 1.49 | 15.7 | .26 | 20.5 | 243.9 |
| Baker Mayfield | 58 | 229.9 | 1.60 | 13.0 | .10 | 19.9 | 242.9 |
| Russell Wilson | 55 | 221.6 | 1.51 | 17.4 | .18 | 20.0 | 239.0 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 51 | 229.5 | 1.78 | 5.9 | .08 | 19.8 | 235.5 |
| Daniel Jones | 43 | 200.3 | .81 | 34.3 | .28 | 18.6 | 234.6 |
| Justin Fields | 44 | 175.2 | 1.02 | 54.9 | .41 | 20.8 | 230.2 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 37 | 208.6 | 1.03 | 11.9 | .27 | 17.4 | 220.5 |
| Mac Jones | 49 | 210.8 | 1.06 | 8.4 | .04 | 15.9 | 219.2 |
I've watched Wilson play a lot the last four years. There are flaws which don't even show up in the stats, like the fact the sacks he takes seem to come at the worst possible times -- 3rd and 3 in the vicinity of the end zone, for instance. He can make some nice throws, as the touchdown numbers highlight, but he'll definitely be mixing them in with excruciating sacks, drives that end with field goals rather than touchdowns, and some narrow defeats.
I don't think Wilson will be playing five more years; even three is optimistic. When his Giants contract is up a year from now, I'm not sure he'll have much of a market.
--Andy Richardson