There’s a fascinating football experiment being conducted by Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett, based on a theory that a rookie NFL head coach is boldly pushing on his franchise quarterback: Less DangeRuss is more.

Less hero ball by Wilson equals more wins by the Broncos.

Will this experiment work? Nothing less than the happiness of Broncos Country, to say nothing of a healthy relationship between Wilson and Hackett, depends on it.

When Denver went all in on a blockbuster trade with Seattle to acquire Wilson, it was based on the premise he has another decade of great football and multiple championship runs left in his 33-year-old body.

It is Hackett’s job to make Wilson a more outstanding quarterback during his second decade in the NFL than the past 10 seasons, when DangeRuss was named to the Pro Bowl nine times.

We all know Father Time is undefeated. The Seahawks pushed a veteran QB that led them to a Super Bowl victory out the door. So I asked Hackett: Is it realistic to believe the best football of Wilson’s life is still ahead of him?

“Can a quarterback get better in his 30s? Yes. Without a doubt, you can get better and better. Look at Aaron Rodgers. He has won back-to-back MVPs in Green Bay,” Hackett told me.

Everything about Wilson’s track record in Seattle suggests he’s a worthy heir to John Elway and Peyton Manning as a hero capable of carrying a team to the playoffs. He averaged 10 victories and 29 touchdowns passes per year during a glorious decade with the Seahawks.

But there’s one troubling statistic that must change: 476.

In 174 regular season and playoff games, Wilson has been sacked nearly 500 times.

I admire Wilson’s ambition to play into his mid-40s and commitment to do whatever it takes to win the Lombardi Trophy for the fourth time in franchise history. In a violent sport, however, it might be difficult for Wilson to survive another 476 sacks without a serious injury that could diminish his effectiveness and shorten his career.

“Every single thing I do with (Wilson) is geared to one thing: If Russ wants to extend his career, we can’t let the defense touch him,” Hackett said on a hot August afternoon during a camp when a rookie coach was trying to convince a successful quarterback there’s a better way to conduct business.

When dropping back to pass, Wilson is fearless, unafraid to extend plays with his legs and relentlessly aggressive at taking deep shots to blow the top off a defense. That’s how Russ cooks.

But Wilson pays for his never-surrender courage with a heavy physical toll. During his time in the NFL, Wilson has been sacked on 9.8% of his drop-backs. Compare that heavy abuse to the 4.6% sack rate over the course of 22 pro seasons by a precision artist like Tom Brady or the 3.9% sack rate by young gunslinger Patrick Mahomes, and you get a sense of how dangerously Wilson lives in the pocket.

When I floated my health concerns about Wilson to Hackett, his eyes lit up with the megawatt recognition of a student who had already memorized all the answers to the exam.

“Everything I communicate with (Wilson) about starts with protection, protection, protection,” Hackett said.

“How you do that is very intricate. It’s more than just running a particular kind of play. It’s about how you change protections, how many different launch points you give your quarterback, how we run the football and when we run it. It’s everything. It’s about up tempo, slow tempo. And the beauty is you can do so many different things with a veteran quarterback that understands everything on the field to keep the defense off its game and off him.”

As offensive coordinator in Green Bay, Hackett helped Rodgers reduce his long-time 6.5% sack rate to a career-low 3.7% in 2020. During a previous stint working with Blake Bortles in Jacksonville, Hackett cut the 10.4% sack rate suffered by Bortles as a rookie in half within two seasons.

Hackett isn’t here to tell his franchise quarterback to take a seat in a rocking chair on the porch. He loves the streetball creativity that made Elway a legend in the Rocky Mountains.

So the coach’s sales pitch is to reveal the beauty of quick-hitting routes designed to give ample space for yards after the catch. Hackett refuses to buy the claim Wilson’s 5-foot-11 frame makes it difficult for him to be efficient with short passes between the numbers. There’s hope an athletic quarterback will realize discretion is the better part of scrambling valor.

“With a great quarterback, you must have a reason behind every single thing you do as a coach,” Hackett said. “From the first time we met, Russ said: ‘Just tell me the why. Why are we doing this?’ The why is how we’re going to build this beautiful thing that’s going to be the Denver Broncos offense.”

Just as it took a messy divorce from Dan Reeves before Elway embraced a new way of thinking the game under Mike Shanahan’s guidance, maybe the fresh, enthusiastic voice of Hackett can convince Wilson there’s a smarter way for him to win a championship with the Broncos than the rambling, gambling style that made DangeRuss famous in Seattle.

“Quarterbacks want to stand back there and shred people. They want to throw the ball 60 times. I don’t care if it’s Tom Brady or Russell Wilson. They want to throw the ball and shred defenses. So you have to be able to feed that hunger,” Hackett said. “But I’ve got to get Russ to understand: ‘Dude, I don’t want you touched. I’m going to do everything I possibly can to get the ball out of your hands, into our playmakers’ hands and keep you upright.’”

The whole point of this fascinating experiment being conducted between an established franchise quarterback and his rookie head coach?

Let Russ cook without getting him smushed.