With Sunday’s NFC championship game fast approaching, there are plenty of close matchups to compare and analyze on both sides of the ball. The most important and talked-about of these matchups, of course, has got to be the quarterback battle between Seattle’s Russell Wilson and San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick.

Wilson and Kaepernick took similar paths to the NFL, possess similar playing styles and are uncannily comparable statistically. One parallel is their background leading up to this point.

It may seem funny in hindsight, but neither one was a first-round draft pick and neither one was thought of as a surefire franchise savior. Kaepernick, for his part, was selected 36th-overall by San Francisco in the second round of the 2011 draft. He was highly regarded as a fantastic athlete with a great arm, but was also considered too raw to immediately be given the starting reins of an NFL franchise.

San Francisco stashed him behind Alex Smith for about a season and a half before plugging him in for Week 10 of 2012 after Smith went down with a concussion. The University of Nevada product hasn’t looked back since, leading his team to the Super Bowl last season and earning a shot for another conference championship this Sunday at CenturyLink Field.

Wilson was a third-round pick, 75th overall out of Wisconsin. It wasn’t too long ago that many Seahawks fans insisted Matt Flynn, not Wilson, was the future of the franchise. Oh, how times change. Wilson is now a two-time Pro Bowler and the quarterback of the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

Either way, neither QB came into the NFL with the monumental expectations and hype of other young guns like Indianapolis’ Andrew Luck or Washington’s Robert Griffin III. Quarterbacks selected ahead of Wilson in the 2012 draft include Ryan Tannehill (Miami), Brandon Weeden (Cleveland) and Denver backup Brock Osweiler. The list of QBs selected before Kaepernick includes Blaine Gabbert (Jacksonville), Jake Locker (Tennessee) and Christian Ponder (Minnesota).

Both QBs also considered pursuing baseball, as well. Wilson attended 2011 spring training with the Colorado Rockies and even played some minor-league ball. Kaepernick, a highly decorated high-school pitcher, was a 43rd-round draft pick of the Chicago Cubs in 2009.

The comparison becomes even more interesting when we look at the stats each quarterback put up in the 2013 regular season.

This year Wilson passed for 3,357 yards and threw 26 touchdowns, and ran for another 539 yards and a score. Kaepernick threw for 3,197 yards and 21 touchdowns, adding 524 yards and four TDs on the ground. While Wilson put up slightly better numbers in these basic categories, the differences are marginal and don’t paint a definitive picture of who is a superior quarterback.

Yet in the latter part of the season, one quarterback has statistically pulled away from the other.

Since a 23-20 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 11, Kaepernick has thrown for 1,818 yards and 12 touchdowns, while rushing for 302 yards and 2 scores. In that same time frame, Wilson has passed for 1,098 yards, thrown 9 touchdowns and rushed for 146 yards and no scores, while the Seahawks offense sputtered in losses to San Francisco and Arizona.

While it’s true that Wilson played in two fewer games in that span, the advantage still goes to Kaepernick — especially when you consider that San Francisco has been one of the hottest teams in football, going undefeated that Nov. 17 loss to the Saints.

So, which young quarterback would you want leading your team? Both the Seahawks and the 49ers are lucky to have such reliable and dynamic QBs in a league where elite play from the position can be hard to come by. There’s no wrong answer, but for what it’s worth, make your choice in our poll below.

Which quarterback would you rather have on your team? Russell Wilson

Colin Kaepernick

Neither of them View Results

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