It's all gone wrong, very quickly, for Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos. He's been awful, missing critical throws or taking key sacks in narrow overtime loss after narrow overtime loss. And now a report that he picked up a hamstring injury late in last night's disastrous loss to the Chargers, and might need to miss time.
It would be a mercy, frankly, for those of us who have watched every minute of the Wilson Era in Denver. It's been unavoidable, with the NFL inexplicably putting them on in primetime in four of the first six weeks. Wilson has struggled, the offense has struggled, the coaching has been horrific. It's been simply painful, with no signs of things getting better.
Wilson did look good for a quarter last night, completing his first 10 passes and helping stake Denver to a 10-0 lead. But that disappeared, and nothing good happened after that.
Wilson thus far has thrown only 5 touchdowns in 6 games. He's on pace to throw only 14, which would be a career low by a wide margin. He also has the worst passer rating of his career, also by a wide margin.
In the table, 2022 numbers so far are projected over a full season (which it doesn't appear Wilson will have). Career-low numbers are in bold.
| RUSSELL WILSON, YEAR BY YEAR | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Pass | TD | Run | TD | Rate |
| 2012 | 3118 | 26 | 489 | 4 | 100.0 |
| 2013 | 3357 | 26 | 539 | 1 | 101.2 |
| 2014 | 3475 | 20 | 849 | 6 | 95.0 |
| 2015 | 4024 | 34 | 553 | 1 | 110.1 |
| 2016 | 4219 | 21 | 259 | 1 | 92.6 |
| 2017 | 3983 | 34 | 586 | 3 | 95.4 |
| 2018 | 3448 | 35 | 376 | 0 | 110.9 |
| 2019 | 4110 | 31 | 342 | 3 | 106.3 |
| 2020 | 4212 | 40 | 513 | 2 | 105.1 |
| 2021 | 3113 | 25 | 183 | 2 | 103.1 |
| 2022 | 3845 | 14 | 256 | 3 | 83.4 |
Question now is if Nathaniel Hackett will get a full season. Denver has a Week 9 bye, and you wonder, depending how the next two games go, if the defensive coordinator will be the interim head coach in Week 10.
--Andy Richardson