With his shiny, new $245 million contract, Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson can buy anything except excuses for failure.
New team? Significant injuries to Wilson’s playmakers? Clueless rookie coach? It doesn’t really matter.
The Broncos are paying their new QB the big bucks to play more like Patrick Mahomes and less like Paxton Lynch.
“It’s a game of inches, it’s a game of discipline, it’s a game of doing things right,” Wilson said Wednesday, his voice filled with the relentless optimism that makes him one of most admired players in the NFL.
His don’t-worry, be-happy mantra: “I’m not concerned. I’m actually really excited.”
But no matter how happy a smiley face Wilson draws on this situation, he’s off to a slow start in a Denver uniform.
Doubt it? Let’s compare statistics through two games of two Broncos quarterbacks hyped as leaders of a bright future upon their arrival in Denver.
Quarterback A: 37 completions in 59 attempts for 393 yards; two touchdown passes, one interception; 21.5 points per game; 86.3 QB rating; 1-1 record.
Quarterback B: 43 completions in 73 attempts for 559 yards; two touchdowns, one interception; 16.0 points per game; 86.5 QB rating; 1-1 record.
Quarterback A took the reigns of Denver offense briefly in 2016, before Lynch’s name became mud in Broncos Country.
Quarterback B is Wilson, who needs to step up in 2022 before he can live up to the hype of a blockbuster trade and megadeal that Broncos Country counts on to put the franchise back in the championship conversation.
OK, we all know there’s no real comparison between the football talent or on-field achievements of Wilson and Lynch. Wilson owns a Super Bowl ring that Lynch can only dream about. In the small sample size of Wilson’s work with the Broncos, his passing statistics have been hurt by dropped passes and his point production has been docked by questionable play calls.
Wilson is on the road to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, while Lynch is nothing more than a footnote in Broncos history. And maybe that’s the real point here. Shouldn’t we expect far more from Wilson?
Coach Nathaniel Hackett has been blamed for everything from bad clock management to poor play-calling to the heartbreak of psoriasis in Broncos Country. Much of the criticism is warranted. And to his credit, Hackett has owned the way-too-frequent, dumb-and-dumber moments. “I need to do better at making decisions faster and quicker,” he said.
But in the NFL, where team’s hopes and dreams for a championship begin with the quarterback, is it fair that Wilson has gotten a free pass as nothing more than an innocent victim of Hackett’s ineptitude? The $50 million signing bonus he was paid on his contract extension means the buck stops with Wilson right here, right now.
It was Wilson’s decision to target receiver Courtland Sutton two times in a row from the two-yard line on a failed trip to the red zone during the first quarter against Houston.
Before the ill-fated field goal attempt in the final minute of the loss at Seattle, as QB-turned-analyst Peyton Manning was calling timeout 62 times on national TV, Wilson could’ve taken charge, demanded a chat with Hackett on the sideline and made his case for keeping his teammates on the field to pick up a first down.
If a dazed and confused Lynch averaged 21.5 points per game as an woefully unprepared quarterback making his first two starts as a pro, Wilson should bear responsibility for the an offense that currently ranks 24th of 32 teams in scoring.
“When it comes to Russell and I, it’s just going to be a continual growing process. It’s all about Russ. We want to be sure that he’s comfortable, he’s feeling good and I’m getting the play as fast as I can to him,” Hackett said. “We want to do what is right for him. I think that’s going to be something that we’re going to grow as the season goes on.”
When Manning arrived in Denver way back in 2012, he threw three interceptions in his second game and started his tenure as the Broncos quarterback with a 2-3 record. Last season, Teddy Bridgewater was being prematurely touted as a Pro Bowl candidate after throwing for nearly 600 yards and four touchdowns while leading the Broncos to a 2-0 start.
So it’s too early to make any definitive judgment on how the partnership between Hackett and Wilson will evolve.
But if it’s not too early for the home crowd to mock Hackett by counting down the play clock in the stadium, isn’t it time to expect Wilson to play like the elite QB he’s paid to be?
