Seattle Seahawks: 3 Goals for QB Russell Wilson in 2018

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson NFL NFC West
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Increase Passing Efficiency

Although Russell Wilson had an extremely successful rookie season — particularly for a third-round draft pick — the quarterback improved his craft significantly each season over the beginning of his career. Thus, Wilson was given more responsibility each subsequent year; in each of his six NFL seasons, he finished the year with more pass attempts than he recorded the previous season:

Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson – Passing Statistics Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com
Year G GS QBrec Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Y/A AY/A Y/G Rate Sk Yds Sk%
2012* 16 16 11-5-0 252 393 64.1 3118 26 10 7.9 8.1 194.9 100.0 33 203 7.7
2013* 16 16 13-3-0 257 407 63.1 3357 26 9 8.2 8.5 209.8 101.2 44 272 9.8
2014 16 16 12-4-0 285 452 63.1 3475 20 7 7.7 7.9 217.2 95.0 42 242 8.5
2015* 16 16 10-6-0 329 483 68.1 4024 34 8 8.3 9.0 251.5 110.1 45 265 8.5
2016 16 16 10-5-1 353 546 64.7 4219 21 11 7.7 7.6 263.7 92.6 41 293 7.0
2017* 16 16 9-7-0 339 553 61.3 3983 34 11 7.2 7.5 248.9 95.4 43 322 7.2
Care 96 96 65-30-1 1815 2834 64.0 22176 161 56 7.8 8.1 231.0 98.8 248 1597 8.0

Wilson demonstrated similar passing efficiency over his first three seasons in the league, before peaking in 2015 with a 68.1 completion percentage, 8.3 yards per attempt, 9.0 adjusted yards per attempt and a league-high passer rating of 110.1. However, once Wilson eclipsed 500 pass attempts per year, his efficiency began to decrease. Wilson’s completion percentage dropped to 64.7 percent in 2016, and dropped again to 61.3 percent in 2017. The Seahawks’ quarterback saw similar drops in yards per attempt and adjusted yards per attempt, and ended 2017 with the lowest numbers of his career in both categories.

When Wilson started his NFL career under offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, the Seahawks were a run-first team. By the time Seattle fired Bevell after the 2017 season, the Seahawks had transitioned to a team that relied on their passing game to put points on the board, due to their below-average rushing attack. Seattle’s new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was reportedly hired to revive the team’s run game, and was infamously quoted as saying, “You’ve got to have the ability to run the football when people know you are going to run the football.”

While it’s certainly debatable whether that’s a useful goal for an offensive coordinator in today’s NFL, what’s not debatable is the fact that the Seahawks want to run the ball more in 2018. Fewer pass attempts should allow Wilson to be more effective as a passer, but even if Schottenheimer asks his new quarterback to throw the ball over 500 times, Wilson needs to increase his passing efficiency in 2018 if the Seahawks want to return to the playoffs.

Next Page: Goal No. 2

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