Russell Wilson’s time with the Denver Broncos has been the worst of his career.
After being traded to Denver in March 2022, Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million extension. Three months later, the team was sold to Walmart heir Rob Walton and a group that included business executive Mellody Hobson and eventually former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and F1 star Lewis Hamilton.
These moves energized a fan base eager for a return to its once proud and winning ways. The team’s last winning season was in 2016, a year after Denver, led by Peyton Manning and Von Miller, won Super Bowl 50.
Armed with a new ownership group and another Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Broncos country was ready to add a fourth Lombardi Trophy to its collection.
But then 2022 and Nathaniel Hackett happened.
The Hackett Effect
Suddenly, Russell Wilson looked pedestrian. Analysts said he regressed while doubters claimed he was never that good. Yet the most obvious fact to those of us who understand football was that Hackett’s offense was destroying the greatness of Russell Wilson, enabling the critiques of him to flourish.
To his credit, Russ never complained or pointed fingers.
Mercifully, Hackett was fired after 15 games, the season ended and Sean Payton was called out of retirement to become the team’s new head coach that February.
The hope was Payton would bring his genius offensive mind to Denver and revive Russ’ great career.
The problem was that Payton became offensive, period.
First, he blasted Hackett and the Broncos organization in a July 2023 interview with USA Today Sports.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much (expletive) time trying to win the offseason – the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.”
Then he addressed Russ’ situation under Hackett, and he delivered haymakers with each sentence.
“That wasn’t his fault,” Payton said of Wilson. “That was the parents who allowed it. That’s not an incrimination on him, but an incrimination on the head coach, the GM (George Paton), the president (Damani Leech) and everybody else who watched it all happen.
“There’s so much dirt around that,” he continued. “A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.
“[But] everybody’s got a little stink on their hands. It’s not just Russell. It was a (poor) offensive line. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”
Payton was immediately ripped for his verbal assault and he apologized.
Yet Payton made it clear that Wilson was wronged and that he was going to restore Russ to greatness.
Oh, how quickly things change in a few months.
The Sean Payton Backtrack
After initially standing up for his quarterback this summer, Payton’s tone began to change.
First was the “Russ has gotta be sharper with getting the play out,” comment about his QB early in the season.
Last week, Payton scapegoated Russell Wilson for the team’s recent stumble after a five-game winning streak by benching him in favor of four-year player Jarrett Stidham and his 14 games of NFL experience.
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