Mike Pettine Comments on Russell Wilson's Place in NFL QB Hierarchy

Russell Wilson has been arguably the best quarterback in the NFL the past four weeks and led the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl the last two years. He apparently still hasn't done enough to convince Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine that he is one of the "elite guys" in the league.

As relayed by Pat McManamon of ESPN.com on Wednesday, Pettine commented on Wilson leading up to Cleveland's contest against the red-hot Seahawks on Sunday at CenturyLink Field:

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Would you put him there with the guys that can transcend their supporting cast? The [Tom] Bradys, whether it's Aaron Rodgers, [Drew] Brees, [Ben] Roethlisberger, the ones that you would consider the two, three, four elite guys? No. But he's certainly played himself into that next tier. ...

He plays at a high level, he's very productive and they win. Now a lot of that I think is a function, too, is he's the perfect quarterback for what they do. To me it goes both ways. They've also built it around him.

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Wilson responded in the win-first, stick-to-the-script fashion that has largely defined the interviews and comments he has made throughout his career, per McManamon: "I don't worry about that. I think it comes down to winning games...that's the only thing I care about."

On Thursday, Pettine looked to clarify his comments on Sirius XM NFL Radio with Ross Tucker and Booger McFarland, courtesy of NBC Sports' Josh Alper:

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“There aren’t too many quarterbacks I have more respect for than Russell Wilson,” Pettine said. “All the guy does is go out and do everything right and win football games. To sit and take one fragment of what I said … It’s not my job to rank quarterbacks. I know the bottom line for those guys is, and he said it himself, is to win football games and he’s one of the best at that.”

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Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett also came to Wilson's defense on Friday, per ESPN's Sheil Kapadia:

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"Obviously he's not good at picking quarterbacks. Maybe he doesn't know what elite is. I think that Russell Wilson is very elite. He's been to two Super Bowls. It's only his fourth year. I don't think a lot of guys can say that.

"There's a lot of guys with a lot of passing yards that haven't had any success and don't even go to the playoffs, like Philip Rivers and guys like that. Drew Brees hasn't been to the playoffs in two years. So Russell Wilson is definitely an elite quarterback, and he can lead a team. ... I think Russell Wilson has done a great job of proving that he is up there at the top tier of players."

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Wilson's Seahawks have done plenty of winning lately with four straight victories and a position in the NFC playoffs if the season ended today at 8-5. His play is a large reason Seattle could once again reach the Super Bowl this season, with 16 passing touchdowns and no interceptions during that span.

Here is a look at how effective he has been:

Opponent	Passing Yards	Rushing Yards	Total Touchdowns
San Francisco 49ers	260	30	3
Pittsburgh Steelers	345	14	5
Minnesota Vikings	274	51	4
Baltimore Ravens	292	6	5

It is a sad irony that anyone associated with the Browns is commenting on Wilson's "eliteness" considering they have been a disaster at the quarterback position, which is one of the reasons they have a grand total of one winning season since 2002. That futility sparked a fan's creation of the infamous quarterback jersey listing the numerous starting signal-callers the franchise has had since it returned to Cleveland in 1999.

Michael Silver of NFL.com thinks the 3-10 Browns will add another loss Sunday after Pettine's comments:

Pettine also discussed the similarities he sees between Wilson and his current starting quarterback, Johnny Manziel, per McManamon:

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You can certainly see the similarities. They've done a nice job up there kind of building the package around him. He's more of a runner than we see in Johnny. I'm talking about called quarterback runs. Do we have some zone read stuff and putting the QB on the move? We do that, but [Wilson's] I think thicker built and can withstand some of the shots in the run game more so than we would want to expose Johnny to.

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Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk weighed in on Pettine's comparison:

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Some would follow up with a question about why the Browns have been so resistant to building a package around Manziel and seeing if those on-field similarities might lead to better results the last two years. Pettine would likely point to the off-field differences between the two quarterbacks, but that poor horse has been beaten enough.

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Cleveland's organizational failures go beyond its struggles to find the right coach-and-quarterback combination, but its fans would likely love to see Wilson in a Browns uniform—even if the coach doesn't think he is elite.