Something’s gotta give. Or, in this case, receive.

The 2022 NFL season marks the first time since 2015 that Russell Wilson is entering Week 1 without a skill target on his roster — wide receiver or tight end — who also isn’t among the NFL Network’s most recent list of Top 100 players in the league. And it’s the first time since 2016 that DangeRuss isn’t throwing to a wideout who’d just made that list.

“These guys are smart enough to figure (that part) out. They don’t need me to tell them or remind them,” Broncos wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni told The Denver Post recently.

“They know more than I do. They’re on social media and Twitter and see all that and watch it on TV. We don’t watch TV — as coaches, we barely have time to eat a sandwich. I can’t tell you who’s in the (NFL Network’s) Top 100 … or if one of our (guys) is on it. But they know that I don’t need it. Our motivation is winning this year.”

If folks are sleeping on the guys in his position room — a  wideout group that includes former Pro Bowler Courtland Sutton, the gifted-but-mercurial Jerry Jeudy and rookie sleeper Montrell Washington — or cranking up the hype train, Azzanni noted, his outlook is the same. It’s all outside noise, noise that’s dead to him. The only voice that matters is Wilson’s.

“When you look at quarterbacks that have won the Super Bowl for the Denver Broncos, I mean, there’s a common denominator there,” Azzanni said, referencing a pair of Hall-of-Famers in John Elway and Peyton Manning. “But we’ve got to do our part out there. And we’ve had some injuries … and some guys are fighting to make a team. So once the dust settles here in a couple of weeks, and we’re able to hone in on who we are, what we are, and who’s running out there with (Wilson), every snap, I think, we’ll keep growing faster.”

As a room, Broncos wideouts, who make up one of the youngest units in the NFL in 2022, have had to grow up together — sometimes the hard way. The 6-foot-4 Sutton is just 26, but knee surgeries and rehab have already eaten a chunk out of what looked to be such a promising career right out of the gate. KJ Hamler, who just turned 23, same deal. And football fans from Tuscaloosa to Fort Collins are waiting for the 23-year-old Jeudy, the 2020 first-round pick out of Alabama, to put up the kind of NFL production — the former Tide star went without a touchdown over 10 appearances in ’21 — that matches his talent.

Is Russ the tide that lifts all boats in the wideout room? Or is it the other way around? As a group, Broncos wideouts are at something of a professional crossroads.

For two years, the built-in excuse was that they were missing a front-line quarterback — Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater, bless them, couldn’t meet that standard — who could unlock all those gifts. With Wilson on board, that excuse is gone. Unfortunately, so is Patrick, whose season-ending knee injury during training camp excised from a new offense the kind of big catch radius (6-4) and soft hands that made No. 81 one of the roster’s most reliable targets.

“He was my Binky,” Azzanni joked. “I always say that he was my safety blanket.”

Patrick had developed the kind of chemistry with Wilson in the spring and summer that he was setting up to be one of Big Russ’ safety blankets, too. But that role in 2022 will likely go to Sutton, whose quick rapport with his new signal-caller has proven to be one of the highlights of an up-and-down August.

“Not to take anything away from all the guys (at quarterback) we’ve had here, and we’ve had some great players, but Russ is just different,” noted Azzanni, one of the few holdovers from former coach Vic Fangio’s staff.

“He’s got a different mentality. He raises the standard for those guys. The second he walks in the room, they all sit up and get the notebooks out. It’s more player-led, which is what you want in this league. So these guys, they want to learn from him … they follow along and they don’t talk back. They do everything he says.”

Especially if you want to get paid. Per Spotrac.com, Broncos wideouts only account for 7.1% of the team’s cap space this fall — a relative bargain.

But that’s likely to change in the years to come as the Sutton and Patrick extensions signed last year progress and Jeudy either has to be compensated or replaced. Wide receivers are projected to account for $40.57 million in space, or 18.6% of expected 2023 Broncos cap room, and $33.4 million, or 14.7% of the team’s cap allotment, in 2024.

“We always talk about the root, not the fruit,” Azzanni explained. “Meaning if we can just work on the root of what we need to do, our foundation, our techniques, then that fruit will be there at the end.

“But if you think about the fruit before we do anything out here, then we get ahead of ourselves, and all sudden you look back and you have regret. So we’re just gonna keep watering the root.”

Wilson and his receivers

The Broncos hope to get consistent production from the receiving trio of Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler. A look at the top three receivers during Russell Wilson’s 10 years with Seattle:

* Selected to Pro Bowl. | + Made Pro Bowl as returner.