As the next great quarterback rivalry percolates on the West Coast, Sunday’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers represents more than another fight for playoff positioning. It is a clash of public personas between Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick.

Theirs are the faces of two of the better teams in the N.F.L., and it is not hard to imagine that Wilson versus Kaepernick will become the next generation’s Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning.

Among the methods used to differentiate between the two quarterbacks — from passing statistics to style points, championships to endorsements — is the most obvious difference between them to date: how they address the public when the questions and cameras turn their way.

Wilson is a smooth and polished speaker, eager to please with his effusiveness and politeness. He is “a human Hallmark card,” as the Seattle columnist Art Thiel called him.