AP

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett came to the defense of his quarterback, and said that Browns coach Mike Pettine was not an elite evaluator of quarterback talent.

Via Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com, Bennett said during an interview with 710 ESPN that Pettine was missing the greater point about Russell Wilson.

“Obviously he’s not good at picking quarterbacks, . . .” Bennett said. “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.”

Pettine said early in the week that he didn’t place Wilson in his top tier of quarterbacks, before circling back later in the week after criticism.

It’s perfectly valid to think that Wilson might not be on par with certain other quarterbacks as a pure thrower of footballs. And Pettine should be encouraged to continue to offer unvarnished opinions, without feeling the need to circle back and smooth everything over when something comes out differently than the normal (boring) takes coaches usually spout.

But when the coach of a 3-10 team points out the relative quality of an 8-5 quarterback who won a Super Bowl and went to another one, he also has to understand he’s setting himself up for people to scrutinize his work.