Seattle's Michael Bennett doesn't like whimpering, overpaid, mediocre, quarterbacks

Michael Bennett is one of the most interesting players in the NFL. From saying playing for Pete Carroll is like playing for Willy Wonka to celebrating a NFC Championship victory by riding around the stadium on a police bicycle, he's usually good for some entertainment. He's also never scared to speak his mind and the latest thing on his mind appears to be quarterbacks and how much they make.

Bennett joined the Brock and Salk show on 710 ESPN on Tuesday and took specific issue with the contracts, attention and preferential treatment quarterbacks receive.

"Quarterback is the only position in the NFL where you could be mediocre and get paid," Bennett said via MyNorthwest. "At every other position, you can't be mediocre. If I was Ryan Tannehill and the most games I ever won was seven, how could you get a $100 million for that? I guess that's the value of the position."

Of note, Bennett and Tannehill were college teammates for a couple of seasons at Texas A&M. Bennett isn't letting any collegiate alliances get in the way of his thoughts on quarterback salaries.

It wasn't just money Bennett took issue with.

"Then quarterbacks get protected more than any other player," he said. "I mean, [Sam Bradford] gets hit in his knees and he's about to cry, making a whimpering sound: 'They hit me in my legs.' Everybody gets hit in their legs. Every play somebody tries to hit me in my legs. So what makes him different? What makes his life better than mine? I've got kids. I've got stuff I like to do on the weekend."

And just for good measure, he thinks they receive too much attention, too.

"And then it's like, you're sitting at home and there's breaking news and it says that Brian Hoyer is the quarterback of the Texans. I'm like, who cares? That's not breaking news."

Now, Bennett himself is unhappy with the four-year, $28.5 million deal he signed two offseasons ago and even contemplated a training camp holdout. There might be some resentment there when he sees Tannehill and other quarterbacks cashing in with mega deals while he makes less than half of what they do despite being one of the top defensive ends in the NFL. At the same time, he's not wrong about any of it.

Quarterbacks are going to continue to get paid and more attention, however, no matter how much Bennett doesn't like it. He can always continue to work on his Russell Wilson impersonation to reap some of those benefits.

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