Was Sunday a hint of a rejuvenated Russell Wilson in 2023?

Russell Wilson made some of his finest throws of the season in the Denver Broncos Week 18 31-28 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. In doing so, he kept Denver from a winless season in the division and gave Broncos Country hope for a better offense in 2023.

It was the first time Wilson and the Broncos offense scored 30 or more points in a game this season and it was three separate deep balls that will be ingrained in Denver sports fans memory until training camp.

In the weekly “Russ-O-Meter,” we’ll grade and cover what’s gone on in the wide world of Wilson this week. The meter represents how psyched Broncos Country is with Russell.

Meter: 4 (↑2)

Stat line: 13-for-24 passing, 283 passing yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, 8 carries, 18 rushing yards, 0 TD, 2 sacks for 17 yards, 56.6 QBR, 118.6 Passer Rating

Wilson was nominated for NFL Player of the Week thanks to his performance against Los Angeles. Yes, the last week of the league’s slate has become increasingly meaningless, and yes the Chargers had nothing to pay for but Wilson was very good.

The reason we have to be tepid is that the Chargers had nothing to play for, even with the starters in for a large chunk of the game. L.A. could’ve called timeouts and extended the game for another chance to win it late. The Chargers just weren’t really attempting to win, they were somewhere between resting and going through the motions—and that’s when guys get hurt, look at Mike Williams.

So coming off the worst start of his career, against the Rams, Wilson has now gone for six touchdowns over the past two weeks. Each performance was a high-scoring game for this year’s Broncos and Wilson showed a connection with Jerry Jeudy.

Wilson hit on 63% of his passes in the last two games, ran and threw deep balls. It was the more vintage version of Wilson that has escaped Broncos Country since the spring trade.

Let’s just have some fun and play devil’s advocate for a second. The very limited two-game Nathaniel Hackett-less sample of decent Wilson play over 17 games looks like this: 332 completions on 527 passes for 4,292 yards, 34 touchdowns, 17 picks, 51 sacks for 416 yards, 102 carries for 382 yards with 17 touchdowns on the ground and eight fumbles lost.

That would be the fifth most completed passes for Wilson in his career on the fourth most attempts for a career high in yards with a tied for the third-best touchdown mark but a career-high number of picks. He has twice been sacked more in a season but it would be near his career-high in rushes, set one in running touchdowns and be middle of the pack for his season in yards amassed on the ground.

In other words, the past two weeks were just below a peak version of Wilson. And yet he’d be behind Jared Goff in yards thrown for in the league coming in at sixth, 24th in completion percentage, still fourth in touchdowns thrown for but first in picks. His rushing yards would still be inside the top 10 for signal callers and if he were rushing for a score a week he’d easily lead quarterbacks in rushing.

So in today’s NFL a near peak Wilson is still just a slightly above average to a pretty good quarterback.

Overpaid sure, but capable of winning games like the three fourth-quarter comebacks from this past season would indicate. And those numbers may make him a good candidate for Comeback Player of the Year.

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