As Seattle visits this week, it's a good time to reflect on the very productive career of Russel Wilson, who the Texans have met only twice before. It's also a great opportunity to remind everyone that great quarterbacks can come from just about any round of the draft.
Wilson was drafted in the third round in 2012 and exploded onto the scene with five consecutive double-digit win seasons and two Super Bowl appearances including a win over the Broncos.
His 'worst' season was a 9-7 campaign in 2017. Seattle is still alive for a winning season this year but will have to win-out to get it.
He has the fourth-best career quarterback rating in league history and is fourth on the all-time QB rushing list, second on the active list behind Cam Newton.
The non-first-round QB success is not an outlier in modern NFL history. In the last 25 years, there have been only three Super Bowls in which both quarterbacks were first-rounders.
Wilson played in two of them. Of course, Tom Brady skews the number but Kurt Warner helps as well. And if we go into the way-back machine, we'll see that four-time Super Bowl winner Joe Montana is a third-rounder.
I digress. Wilson is one of the great QBs in modern history. Perhaps because he's tucked away in the Pacific Northwest, he doesn't get discussed enough in conversations revolving around Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and more. He certainly deserves a place at that table.
He'll be here on Sunday with a Seattle team that doesn't have the record they envisioned, at 4-8. But they're coming off a win over San Francisco, they'll be hungry to keep their faint playoff hopes alive and the Texans are doing everything they can to get ready for the challenge.
Watch the Week 14 contest in-person on December 12 at NRG Stadium.Kickoff is set for noon CT. Click here for tickets