Thread by @AdamHarstad

My favorite Russell Wilson comp is Fran Tarkenton for a number of reasons. Stylistically they were so similar. Primarily pocket passers but with fantastic wheels. Running for their lives behind bad lines, mostly playing with meh receivers. Excelled early, super durable.

Through age 32, Wilson has played 144 games. Tarkenton had 167, mostly because he started at 21 (which was absolutely unheard of).

Russell Wilson's ANY/A+ (era-adjusted ANY/A) is 112. Frank Tarkenton's was... an identical 112.

Wilson: 33,946 passing
Tarkenton: 31,135 passing

Wilson: 803/4506/21 rushing
Tarkenton: 531/3195/25 rushing

Tarkenton is the most-sacked QB in history. Wilson has a shot at that mark if he can stay healthy long enough. The two are just so similar across so many different dimensions.

Here's the thing, though. *AFTER* age 32, Tarkenton played 6 more years, made 3 more pro bowls, and was a league MVP.

He retired with the career passing yardage record. He held that record longer than any other quarterback in history. He's *clearly* a better QB than Wilson.

More impressively (for me), Tarkenton killed it on two different teams (three, really, if you count his two Minnesota stints separately). He's one of the best entanglement-busters at quarterback.

Now how many of you would consider Tarkenton a Top 5 quarterback of all time? How many would have him Top 10? (I flirt with him in my Top 5 from time to time and always have him in my Top 10, but I know most tend to be lower on him than me.)

Give Wilson another 6 years like Fran Tarkenton's last 6 and maybe he enters the Top 10 all-time discussion. But at this point, that's wildly premature. Tarkenton led the league in passing yards at age 38 back when that was just something quarterbacks didn't really do.

I don't think Wilson is far out of the Top 20. Another couple strong seasons might get him there for me.

He's a ways out of the Top 10. And I don't see a legit path to the Top 5 unless he *really* turns things on over the last ~third of his career.

Also when talking about Tarkenton you gotta mention the degree of difficulty at the start of his career.

He was the only guy in NFL history to throw 200+ passes at age 21 until Drew Bledsoe in 1993. (Though George Ratterman also did it in the AAFC.) Unheard of.

He did this for the 1961 Minnesota Vikings, an expansion franchise.

Remember David Carr with the expansion Texans? He averaged 3.53 sacks per start over his first four seasons. Tarkenton with the expansion Vikings? 3.47 sacks per start over his first four seasons. Got clobbered.

(Tark had some games where he came off the bench and he undoubtedly got sacked in some of those, so his sacks per game was undoubtedly lower, but nevertheless, he endured a near-David Carr level of abuse as a 21-year-old rookie for an expansion franchise.)

(Whenever someone opines that David Carr sucked because he got beat up so much I remember guys like Tarkenton and Randall Cunningham getting thrown into the fire just as much and emerging as stars and wonder if maybe David Carr just wasn't a good QB.)