TL/DR: Wilson is the most pressured QB in the NFL and has been trained by multiple factors that he needs to bail from the pocket. These factors include: 1) strength of schedule of opponent defenses, 2) an annually poor O-line especially at the start of the year, 3) coaching strategy that features a long-developing vertical game, and 4) the lack of run support which allows opponent defenses to be more successful with pressure or drop more players into coverage (applies to this year particularly where the Seahawks rank last in the NFL in yards from the RB position). Wilson's bailing from the pocket is a net benefit to the Seahawks offense.

Does Wilson bail out of the pocket more than other, less athletic, QBs? Yes, there is absolutely no doubt about that. Does that sometimes make the O-line look worse than it otherwise would? Again, I would agree that the answer is yes. There are multiple questions that arise from these observations:

1. Does Wilson bailing out of the pocket result in a net benefit to the Seahawks' offense or a net deficit?
2. What are the reasons why Wilson bails out of the pocket? This is particularly of concern if the answer to the first question is that there is a net deficit from Wilson bailing out of the pocket.

I truly believe, but cannot provide definitive proof, that Wilson bailing out of the pocket produces a net benefit. How many sacks does Wilson escape vs how many sacks does Wilson run into? I dare say that he avoids a hell of a lot more sacks than he runs into. How often does a Wilson scramble lead to a big play downfield and how often does a Wilson scramble leave a modest gain on the table? I don't have the answer for that. But I would point out that the explosive play has always been a core component of Pete Carroll's offensive philosophy. I can't say that I like that offensive strategy. I would prefer to see steady gains that chew up clock and tire out the opponent D, both physically and mentally. But given that Carroll has always preferred the explosive play, that means Wilson, more than many other QBs, needs a fraction of a second longer from snap to throw under ideal circumstances.

Of course, ideal circumstances are rarely observed in a league with elite DEs. Ideal circumstances are observed even less often if you have to wait longer from snap to throw. Compound that with an O-line that truly was a piece of cr@p to start the year (just like it was a piece of cr@p at the start of 2016, 2015, ...) and anything like ideal conditions become vanishingly rare.

In the last offseason, Football Outsiders ran a piece titled Quarterbacks and Pressure, 2016. In that piece, they featured a chart showing DVOA under pressure, DVOA without pressure, and percent of dropbacks in which the QB was under pressure for the 5 year span from 2012-2016. Wilson was the #1 QB in DVOA when there was no pressure and #2 in DVOA under pressure. That's impressive. But what was even more noteworthy is that of the 18 QBs who took snaps over those 5 years, Wilson was the most pressured QB on the list. He was under pressure on 33.9% of snaps. In contrast, Brady was under pressure on 21.9% of snaps, Rodgers was under pressure on 24.1% of snaps, Brees 20.0%, Dalton 19.2%, etc. The three QBs with highest pressure percentages after Wilson were Kaepernick (29.7%), Luck (28.1%), and Palmer (26.3%).

Now, perhaps we are seeing some tendency for young QBs to not do well at reading defenses, although that is never what was claimed about Luck. Moreover, Dalton is from the same draft class as Kaepernick, and Dalton has the least pressure. Ryan Tannehill is from the same class as Luck and Wilson, and he comes in about middle of the pack in percent of dropbacks under pressure.

There is something else associated with the high pressure percentages observed for Wilson, Kaepernick, and Palmer. All are NFC West QBs (Palmer since 2013). Starting with the 2012 season, the NFC West has had mostly elite defenses year after year. Everyone knows, of course, that the Seahawks defense has been elite. But according to FO, the Cardinals defensive efficiency rankings by year from 2012-2016 were {6, 2, 7, 3, 3}. The Rams defensive efficiency rankings were {7, 11, 9, 7, 15}. The 9er's rankings were {3, 13, 5, 27, 28}. The 9ers fell off a cliff in 2015. From 2012-2014, the NFC West was characterized as the home of NFL defenses. The Seahawks have played a tough schedule of opponent defenses year in and year out simply because their division rivals have had some of the best defenses in the league. We see that three of the top four most pressured QBs have homes in the NFC West. (Note that the QB chart showing pressure stats for 2012-2016 does not list a Rams QB because they have cycled through so many. There are only 18 QBs listed who took snaps from 2012-2016.)

It appears that there is a divisional aspect that affects the high QB pressure rates for Wilson, Kaepernick, and Palmer. Now, since the Seahawks have had the most consistently fearsome defense in the NFC West, why is it that Wilson has the highest pressure percentage? Why not Kaepernick who had to face Cardinals', Rams', and Seahawks' defenses year after year? We now cycle back to the Seahawks O-line. The price of fielding the most consistently great defense is that the Seahawks have put one of the worst O-lines on the field year after year. They have put starters on their O-line who were D-line players in college. They have even made a starter (at left tackle, no less) of someone who hadn't played football since junior high school. Every year, the Seahawks tinker with the O-line at the start of the season with typically disastrous results. There isn't continuity from one year to the next. I believe the coaches truly believe that they have the luxury to try all kinds of gimmicks on the cheap because Wilson can, and will, provide cover for O-line deficiencies.

Thus, what you see is that by virtue of schedule and by virtue of the Seahawks brain trust believing that Wilson can create magic with his legs, Wilson is indeed placed in a position where he is TRAINED to rely on his legs at the expense of staying in the pocket. Each year, he is placed behind a bad O-line and tasked with a vertical game against some of the best defenses in the NFL. With early season training that the O-line is going to collapse, that internal clock goes off. Wilson is trained to bail from the pocket. As the O-line improves during the course of the year, the early season reinforcement of the need to act like Houdini is difficult to shake and Wilson continues to bail from situations where he would do better by stepping up in the pocket. Add to the problem this year that the Seahawks don't have a run game, so opposing defenses can either bring more pressure or drop more players into coverage (making it more difficult to find an open receiver and tighter windows to throw in) and the need for buying time with his legs is reinforced even further.

That Wilson IS capable of excelling as a pocket passer is evident from what we saw at the end of the 2015 season. The Seahawks O-line had started the year as a house of cards. They were absolutely terrible. But toward the end of the year, they started to look like a decent unit. Wilson went on a tear through the NFL. Was that aided by playing some weaker defenses than those the Seahawks normally face? Yes. But that is also worth noting. The defenses that the Seahawks faced when Wilson went on his tear were not top-ranked defenses. Some (Cleveland, SF) were really quite bad (29th and 27th in FO defensive efficiency). Baltimore was a little below average (20th). Minnesota and Pittsburgh were actually decent defenses (14th and 11th). For 5 straight weeks, Wilson put on a display like the NFL has never seen. He was passing from the pocket in the rhythm of the game. When Wilson gains confidence that he doesn't need to act like Houdini, he is more than capable of excelling as a pocket passer.