Russell Wilson is on pace to run away with NFL MVP

Russell Wilson is torching the league with an NFL MVP squarely in his sights.

Anyone saying that Russell Wilson isn’t one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL — and there were only a few of them — prior to this season was lying to themselves. The Seattle Seahawks‘ man under center has been consistently putting the offense on his back for years. But famously, he’d never received an NFL MVP vote prior to the 2020 season.

That’s about to change. It’s only been three weeks but, at the pace that Russell Wilson is currently playing at, he’s not only going to get his first votes for NFL MVP, he’s going to be a unanimous winner of the award.

On Sunday in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, Wilson again found himself in an offensive shootout and the quarterback drove the success of the offense. He threw for 312 yards on 27-of-40 passing with five touchdowns, the second straight week he’s done so, and tossed the game-winner to D.K. Metcalf to give Seattle the 38-31 win, keeping them perfect at 3-0 on the year.

We’ve seen Wilson have these games before throughout his career. What’s setting the start to the 2020 season apart for the quarterback, especially in the early NFL MVP race, is the fact that he’s essentially put forth that type of performance three weeks in a row. The Seahawks offense has shifted to a Wilson-centric deep passing attack and he’s thriving like we’ve never seen before.

The NFL MVP race will be a runaway at this pace with Russell Wilson in front.

Through three games now, Wilson is completing 76.7 percent of his passes while throwing for 922 yards along the way. Most impressively, though, the Seahawks quarterback now has the NFL record for the most passing touchdowns through the first three games of the season, tossing his 14th on Sunday against the Cowboys to earn the win.

Wilson has long excelled when asked to push the ball downfield but the Seahawks offensive scheme has often prevented him from doing it as much as they, frankly, should have. They’ve been a run-first team that only relied on Wilson when the situation grew dire. That’s no longer the case.

The Seahawks offense is now predicated on downfield throws from Wilson to Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, two wide receivers who are perfect assets in this style of offense. And as you’d expect, the quarterback has consistently found them. Even with the 14 scores (and only one interception), his efficiency in this type of passing offense speaks to just how dominant he’s been.

Plenty of players throughout the league are off to a hot start in the 2020 season. Having said that, no one is on the level of Russell Wilson right now. There are still 13 games left to be played this season but, if Wilson can keep this up and the Seahawks keep winning as a result, the quarterback is going to shed the no-vote narrative and, instead, have hardware to show for it.