Sean Payton might be ready to put training wheels back on Russell Wilson
Sep 17, 2023, 6:34 PM | Updated: Sep 18, 2023, 2:20 pm
The Denver Broncos scored more points on Sunday than they had at any other time since Russell Wilson joined the orange and blue—yet a large chunk of the game, the home team’s attack looked incompetent.
Wilson threw a successful hail mary in a 35-33 loss at the buzzer to the Washington Commanders in Sunday’s Week 2 contest. The Broncos blew an 18-point lead and went nearly 40 minutes without finding the end zone in the defeat. Perhaps most concerning was Wilson, who has 27 career fourth-quarter comebacks, having no sense of urgency as Denver drove down 11 points late in the final period.
“It was more than just one drive,” Sean Payton said postgame. “There were a number of drives where we were late with personal, getting out of the huddle took a while, that’s gotta change. I was burning timeouts in the first half, I’m not used to doing. We gotta be better, I gotta be better, Russ has got be sharper with getting the play out. If we need to wristband it we will.”
Denver came out firing with three touchdowns on the first three drives. And Wilson seemingly was going to get his wish of more chances with the ball after Week 1 saw the Broncos offense only get six drives. But drive four was a game-shifting Wilson fumble and then Denver went sleepy on offense.
“I had two or three player where we could’ve been a little bit faster,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to be cleaner. We’ll be cleaner next time.”
Whether Wilson will wear the wristband or not is unknown, but he always is striving to be better. Meanwhile his coach, an offensive mastermind, more or less aid it may be time to tone it down even more on Russ—a big part of his gameplan this offseason.
Funny enough last year’s head coach Nathaniel Hackett got off to a 2-1 start and was at the center of a bunch of controversy when former Wilson coach in Seattle Pete Carroll said the quarterback didn’t like wearing play-calling wristbands.
Two games in and Wilson’s offense under Payton is a few tips away from only nine second-half points. Given an 0-2 start and a tough game on the road next week, it’s hard to see a major turnaround coming for Wilson and that may mean bad things about his future in the Mile High City after a lousy first season.
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