The NFL is a copycat league. That isn’t anything that most fans haven’t heard hundreds of times right around Super Bowl week.

While it does make sense that many of the 30 teams that didn’t earn a trip to the Super Bowl would want to emulate the teams that did make it, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks set a really poor road map for others to follow.

While it’s often exaggerated that Pete Carroll’s job security was on the rocks before the team drafted Russell Wilson, it’s common knowledge that Wilson was the catalyst for his outstanding run.

Carroll used a great amount of foresight to bench his pricey free agent quarterback (Matt Flynn) for the better player, even though that guy was a third-round pick. Most head coaches wouldn’t be allowed to even be in that position as their general manager would force them to play the pricier guy due to job security and “wasting the owner’s money.”

With Carroll having a certain amount of personnel control, the Seahawks were able to benefit by simply playing the best player.

As unlikely as it is to play the best guy in this situation, it’s much more unlikely that the best guy, the third-round pick, turns into a Pro-Bowl caliber, Super-Bowl caliber quarterback.

“I think he’s very, very special,” Carroll said of Wilson. “I don’t know how he could play at the level that he plays at and have the expectations and be able to live up to those expectations in the most challenging of times without a tremendous mind. He’s got a tremendous competitive mindset and he knows how it stems from the confidence that he feels based on the preparation that he puts in. And so he builds towards each game to the point where he trusts what’s going on to get him to that point, knowing that he’s ready for whatever comes up.”

Out of the 57 quarterbacks selected in the third round or later going back to 2008, only Wilson has led his team to a Super Bowl as a quarterback.

“I think the mental aspect’s huge, just being locked in all the time and being able to motivate other guys,” Wilson explained. “My goal is to make the other 10 guys better on the field. So through ups and downs, you stay mentally focused, stay mentally locked into it and you keep fighting for one another, and that’s what we were able to do those last three minutes of the game [against Green Bay]. We were able to stay in it and play one play at a time, and stay positive and have that same outlook throughout the whole game. I never want to change. I want to be that even keel person, but also the type of guy that’s always going to be positive and motivating, and find a way somehow.”

The Seahawks finding a third-round gem at quarterback in Wilson clearly isn’t something that another franchise can count on replicating.

As unique as it was for the Seahawks to strike gold with Wilson, the Patriots finding perhaps the greatest quarterback in NFL history with the 199th overall pick is unimaginable.

Everyone knows the history of how Tom Brady received his illustrious start due to an injury to starter and first-round pick Drew Bledsoe. We all know the improbable playoff run that was aided by the “Tuck Rule” and how that simply couldn’t be replicated by any team.

On top of that is the “Patriot Way,” which means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Put aside for a moment that New England hasn’t won a Super Bowl in a decade, the team has been a consistent contender for the entire tenure of Brady and Bill Belichick.

It’s not that the Patriots are “smarter” than anyone else when it comes to the draft. Sure, they’ve found their late-round gems but they’ve had their fair share of early-round misses. A big part of New England’s success has been the ability to not overpay players and, even more importantly, the ability to sign free agents to discounted deals because they’d like to play with Brady and for Belichick.

Unlike the NBA and MLB, the National Football League has no guaranteed contracts, and it’s remarkably difficult to get players to take less money to play for a contender. The Patriots have constantly been able to acquire veterans who will take less.

So if you’d like to replicate the success of the Seahawks and Patriots and follow their blueprint, all you have to do is bench your new free agent quarterback that you gave eight-figures to for a 5-foot-10, third-round rookie; hope your first-overall pick at quarterback gets hurt so your legendary sixth-round pick can replace him; and simply ask free agents who are looking to build wealth to simply sign on your terms to have a chance to win.

Sounds doable, right?