I guess the ride is over for Russell Wilson. The Denver Broncos have made the move everyone expected them to make as they have officially BENCHED Russell Wilson for the rest of the season.
And the worst trade in NFL history goes to…the Broncos getting Russell Wilson.
With the season pretty much done and dusted as they have less than a 10% chance of making the playoffs with their 7-8 record, the Denver Broncos have made a massive, but expected move of benching Russell Wilson for the rest of the year. And, as everyone should suspect, this is clearly the end of Russell Wilson with the Broncos.
How do you come back from this if you’re Wilson? How?
For those who haven’t seen the news, the Broncos have benched Russell Wilson for the final two games of the season and have named Jarred Stidham as the starting quarterback for the official reason of wanting to avoid getting Wilson hurt and having to dish out nearly $40M in guaranteed money next season under such circumstances. But we all know the TRUE reason why Wilson got the boot to the bench: it’s because he SUCKED.
Okay, more specifically, he sucked during the Broncos final stretch of the season and was one of the biggest reasons why Denver has fallen from being a playoff hopeful to now looking at Top-10 draft choices again. Well, he actually was the reason why they went from looking like the worst team in the league to playoff hopefuls and then back to being a Bottom-10 team in the league, but that’s not important right now.
What’s important is the fact that Russell Wilson had 8 passing TDs, 0 picks, 894 passing yards, 1 rushing TD, and had a 5-game winning from Weeks 7-12, yet he has gone 1-3 during Weeks 13-16, he’s had 6 passings TDs, 871 passing yards, 4 interceptions, 2 rushing TDs, and has lost his last two starts in blowout fashion against the Lions (42-17) and choked against the 4-11 Patriots (26-23) on Christmas Eve.
What does this tell us? Well, it says that not only has Russell Wilson lost almost all composure and poise in the pocket during the Broncos dreadful spell to cap off the season, but he’s also a far less effective quarterback when he’s forced to actually throw the football. I’m sure some fans are going to blame Sean Payton for the woes of the Broncos offense, and that’s fair on some levels; yet he’s shown that he can’t consistently win with Wilson when the former Seahawks QB needs to throw for more than 200 yards a game.
Seriously, Russell Wilson only averaged 179 passing yards/game and 1.6 TDs/game during the Broncos 5-game winning streak that resurrected their season for a while, which is clearly backup-level stats and unbecoming of a quarterback like Russell Wilson.
However, when Wilson was actually throwing for 218 passing yards/game (which still isn’t great, but it’s not as bad as the middle stretch) and 2 total TDs/game (which is also really not great), the Broncos went 1-3 and were either embarrassed or destroyed in three of the four matchups.
That’s terrible and a clear sign of the overwhelming need to cradle and protect Wilson if one wants to win games…which is absolutely insane when you remember the Broncos traded a 2022 1st round pick, a 2023 1st round pick, a 2022 2nd round pick, a 2023 2nd round pick, a 2022 5th round pick, TE Noah Fant, QB Drew Lock, and DE Shelby Harris.
Oh, and don’t forget that the Broncos also immediately signed Wilson to a 5-year, $245M contract extension after the deal…which kicks in at the start of the 2024 season. That’s right. The Broncos still aren’t even paying Wilson the massive contract extension they signed him.
Yes, Wilson’s overall stats of 3,070 passing yards, 26 passing TDs, 8 INTs, 80 CAR, 341 rushing yards, and 3 rushing TDs isn’t the world’s worst performance, but you can’t win meaningful games with him anymore. And that’s why Sean Payton and the Broncos are now reported to have already decided to cut Wilson when the roster cut decisions in March rolls around.
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