CLAY MOYLE AND SON CALEB
I love reading all the stories about the individuals who criticized the selection of Russell Wilson in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft in the wake of their recent Super Bowl victory.
Here’s a sampling of the response to the Seahawks drafting Wilson immediately after the draft that year by so-called experts:
“There was simply no need for Wilson, compounded by the presence of Josh Portis.” – Matt Millen
“As if the day wasn’t bad enough, Seattle selecting Russell Wilson, a QB that doesn’t fit their offense at all, was by far the worst move of the draft. With the two worst moves of the draft (also selecting Bruce Irvin in the first round), Seattle is the only team that received an F on draft day.” – Donald Wood, Bleacher Report.
“The Seahawks spent a third-round pick on Wilson even though the history of QBs under 6-foot is poor, to say the least. You don’t spend a third-round pick on a guy who’ll be lucky to be Seneca Wallace. You also don’t do that after signing Matt Flynn as a free agent. The Seahawks are no closer to solving the QB situation now than they were before 2011.” – Jason Cole, Yahoo Sports.
“Seattle’s draft was full of reaches. Not only was Irvin a reach, but so were Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson.” – Dalton Johnson, Bleacher Report
Draft guru Mel Kiper gave the Seahawks a C- for their 2012 draft and a D- for player value attained. He and former NFL coach turned television analyst, Jon Gruden, got into a heated argument concerning the prospects of Russell Wilson on draft day. Kiper maintained that Wilson was just too short.
But Gruden, who’d worked with Wilson as part of his popular quarterback camp television show argued that Wilson had everything he needed to succeed in the NFL despite his height. And, when the Seahawks selected him in the third round as the 75th pick of the draft here’s what else Gruden had to say about the selection:
“I like this pick. If I were Matt Flynn or Tarvaris Jackson I’d be leery of this kid, because if you give him a chance, if you look past the five-foot-11 or five-foot-10 and half inch, or whatever it is, if you give this kid a legitimate chance to win the job, he’ll win it. That’s how much confidence I have in him. I loved his workout, spent a lot of time with him. He can lead your football team. I like this pick a lot. He really made an impression on me.”
Gruden went on to say that Wilson was exactly the kind of quarterback he’d want to coach.
Well, everyone knows the rest of the story. The majority of the so-called experts didn’t know what the heck they were talking about. Wilson beat both Jackson and Flynn out in the 20012 training camp and became a starter in his rookie season.
Not only that, he had an outstanding rookie season and led his team into the playoffs. A year later he’s led his team to a world championship.
I love it when guys like Wilson prove the “experts” wrong.
Apparently, Wilson is enjoying the moment as well. I see that he posted a photograph after their Super Bowl victory of the 2012 Seahawks draft class on line with the following caption in response to the grade Bleacher Report gave for the Seahawk draftees that year:
“The 2012 Seahawks draft class. They graded us an F. Now we are World Champs!”
That class just happened to include a few other notable Seahawk performers in addition to Wilson such as Bobby Wagner, Robert Turbin, J.R. Sweezy, Bruce Irvin and Jeremy Lane but clearly the steal of the draft was Wilson.
I can hardly wait to hear what the experts have to tell us about the upcoming 2014 draft. Something tells me they might not be quite so harsh in terms of any criticism of the selection of any quarterbacks under six feet tall.