Russell Wilson wants to be an MVP, not just get a vote

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Much has been made of Russell Wilson never getting a single vote for MVP during his eight seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.

Wilson has helped lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory, two appearances, seven playoff trips and nine postseason victories in his eight seasons in Seattle. He’s never missed a game, never won fewer than nine games in a season and led the league in touchdown passes in 2017 with 34.

But despite all that success, Wilson has not earned one of the 50 votes for the MVP award at the end of any of his eight seasons in the NFL.

Wilson was asked Thursday about that reality and made it clear getting a vote for the MVP isn’t on his mind. But something else definitely is.

“I don’t want a vote. More importantly, I want to win (the award),” Wilson said.

When you examine the MVP cases through the years, it’s hard to find a significant fault with any of the votes that kept Wilson from a vote. His best statistical years came in years when the Seahawks weren’t as strong as they had been during the Super Bowl runs. The year he led the league in passing touchdowns was the one year the team has missed the playoffs. While he’s been brilliant the last two seasons especially, Mahomes and Jackson have had far better cases at the end of the year. In 2015 when he led the league in passer rating and tossed 34 touchdowns, Cam Newton led the Carolina Panthers to a 15-1 year with a big statistical season of his own.

Wilson’s played well enough to potentially have earned a vote at some point, but it’s not a travesty that he hasn’t.

But that could change this year with the stellar start Wilson has had against Atlanta and New England over the first two weeks. Wilson has completed 52 of 63 passes for 610 yards with nine touchdowns and an interceptions in Seattle’s wins over the Falcons and Patriots. Only Patrick Mahomes‘ 10 touchdowns in 2018 over the first two weeks of the season surpasses Wilson’s nine touchdowns passes. Peyton Manning (2013), Drew Brees (2009) and Charley Johnson (1965) also had nine touchdowns in the first two games of the season.

Wilson has frequently said he wants to be considered one of the best quarterbacks ever and views himself as the best quarterback in the NFL currently. An MVP award would be another accomplishment to check of his list.

“Obviously MVP is a special award,” Wilson said. “It’s the best football players in the world and there are so many great guys. I think about guys like Lamar (Jackson) last year, he was unbelievable last year. Such a great player. Guys like Patrick Mahomes.

“I think for me, I want to be regarded as one of the best to ever play this game to be honest with you. I think it’s part of the process and hopefully I can win enough games and do enough special things as a team to be able to do that. It’s a team award, really, I think, in terms of the MVP. It’s really a special award because everybody’s involved in it. Hopefully I can be a part of that and hopefully we can be a part of that as a team.”