No matter how your individual MVP ballot shook out, surely both Cam Newton and Russell Wilson were on it somewhere.

The starting quarterbacks of Sunday’s early Divisional Round playoff game between the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks were incredible this season.

Newton, likely the MVP frontrunner, finished the regular season with 3,837 passing yards, 636 rushing yards, and 45 combined touchdowns.

His anecdotal case for the league’s top player was even stronger. The dual threat signal caller was both the most talented and most dangerous player on the field this year. He led his team to a 15-1 record and made Ted Ginn Jr. look like a star at wide receiver. Ted Ginn Jr!

But as great as Newton was this year, Wilson sure made it close down the stretch.

The Seahawks quarterback threw 24 of his 34 touchdown passes in the team’s last seven games of the season – six wins – to storm into the MVP conversation. Wilson actually finished the year with more all-purpose yards than Newton – 4,577 to 4,473 – but was outscored by Newton 45 total touchdowns to 35.

And while he had been a stronger receiver than Ginn up to this season, Wilson’s work helping Doug Baldwin get to the next level deserves a lot of praise as well. After never surpassing 825 yards or five touchdowns receiving, Baldwin finished last year with 1,069 yards and 14 touchdowns. 11 of those scores came during Wilson’s scoring hot seven-game streak to end the year.

Disregarding last week’s mediocre performance in their Wild Card win in Minnesota for obvious and freezing cold reasons, it’s hard to gauge which quarterback is hotter heading into Sunday’s Divisional Round tilt.

Newton and Wilson could be the league’s next great quarterback rivalry, the NFC’s version of Peyton Manning vs Tom Brady. The two have met five times before, and Sunday will be their second Divisional Round meeting.

All due respect to other great NFC QBs like Drew Brees, who is getting on, and Aaron Rodgers and Carson Palmer, who are at least nearing the ends of their windows, but Newton and Wilson could be a battle for years to come.

 

 

Their careers have overlapped save for 2011 when Newton was drafted first overall. Wilson, one year older than Newton, was drafted a year later but similarly was a starter right out of the gate. The two compare eerily close to Manning and Brady, who are also a year apart in age and drafted just two years apart, although Brady didn’t become a fulltime starter until his second season.

 

A comparison of the two yields some similarities. While they can both beat a team through the air and on the ground, Wilson should be given the edge in passing, and the rushing comparison is closer than Wilson’s often given credit for. Newton’s imposing stature gives him the clear advantage as a goal line back – and his rushing touchdown numbers verify that – but the Panthers passer rushed for only 83 more yards this regular season and has just 777 more rushing yards in his career, having played 14 more games.

 

Where Wilson really holds the edge is in both head-to-head meetings and playoff experience. Wilson won the two’s first four head-to-head meetings before Newton finally got on the board with a 27-23 win this year. And Wilson’s 6-2 postseason record, including of course a Super Bowl win, easily trumps Newton’s 1-2 record.

For this rivalry to truly become the NFC’s version of Manning and Brady, Newton has some catching up to do in the playoffs. Sunday’s game would be a good start. And Round Six of this young battle is perhaps the most significant to date.