In case you're living in a cave, you've missed the Internet picking on the Broncos for releasing Russell Wilson, eating the largest dead cap hit in NFL history. What's funny is I also see people saying he'll have an active free agent market. Maybe from teams that didn't watch him play the last two years.
It was easier to excuse his horrific 2022 season, with Nathaniel Hackett in over his head as head coach after being carried by Aaron Rodgers for years. (The criticism of Sean Payton for calling out Hackett last preseason faded pretty quickly into Hackett's first year with the Jets.) But 2023 started out similarly badly, and the late-season playoff push only occurred with Payton having Wilson doing less.
By some metrics, and thanks to a bunch of narrow wins, Wilson seemed to be having a credible season at times in Payton's offense. But if you actually watched all the games, as I was unfortunate enough to, you saw a quarterback who more often that not couldn't sense pressure and couldn't react or move quickly enough at key moments -- just like in 2022. Someone will sign Wilson, maybe Pittsburgh or someone, but I'm very comfortable saying his time as a difference maker and successful NFL quarterback is over.
Fans of the Manningcast, where the Manning brothers commented on Monday Night Football as it happened, may recall the time they had Patrick Mahomes as a guest, when the Broncos were playing the Bills I believe, and Manning wowed them by predicting Denver's three red-zone plays: run, run, Wilson dropback resulting in a sack. There was nothing remarkable about forecasting that sequence, which happened in virtually every Broncos game all season long. I watched it time and time again, while Payton seethed furiously on the sidelines and Wilson jogged off in favor of the field goal unit. On occasion these sequences ended with Wilson scrambling around and heaving up a ridiculous throw to Courtland Sutton that resulted in an amazing touchdown. The guy can still make the occasional highlight-reel throw. But those plays were vastly outnumbered by sacks, incompletions that had zero chance of being completed, or 5-yard runs to the sideline on 3rd and 12.
Statistically, it was Wilson's worst or one of the worst of his career in every respect. Next to last in passing yards per game, last in yards per attempt, and 8th or worse (in a 12-year career) in terms of throwing touchdowns, passer rating and taking sacks. It's over.
| RUSSELL WILSON, YEAR BY YEAR | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Y/G | Rk | TD | Rk | Int | Rk | Y/A | Rk | Rate | Rk | Sk | Rk |
| 2012 | 194.9 | 12 | 26 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 7.9 | 5 | 100 | 7 | 33 | 2 |
| 2013 | 209.8 | 10 | 26 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 8.2 | 2 | 101.2 | 6 | 44 | 6 |
| 2014 | 217.2 | 8 | 20 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 7.7 | 7 | 95.0 | 10 | 42 | 4 |
| 2015 | 251.5 | 4 | 34 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 8.3 | 1 | 110.1 | 2 | 45 | 7 |
| 2016 | 263.7 | 1 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 7.7 | 8 | 92.6 | 11 | 41 | 3 |
| 2017 | 248.9 | 5 | 34 | 4 | 11 | 9 | 7.2 | 11 | 95.4 | 9 | 43 | 5 |
| 2018 | 215.5 | 9 | 35 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 8.1 | 3 | 110.9 | 1 | 51 | 11 |
| 2019 | 256.9 | 3 | 31 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 8.0 | 4 | 106.3 | 3 | 48 | 10 |
| 2020 | 263.3 | 2 | 40 | 1 | 13 | 12 | 7.5 | 9 | 105.1 | 4 | 47 | 9 |
| 2021 | 222.4 | 7 | 25 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 7.8 | 6 | 103.1 | 5 | 33 | 1 |
| 2022 | 234.9 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 7.3 | 10 | 84.4 | 12 | 55 | 12 |
| 2023 | 204.7 | 11th | 26 | 8th | 8 | 6th | 6.9 | 12th | 98.0 | 8th | 45 | 8th |
The one stat where Wilson was middle-of-the-road (for his career) was in terms of throwing interceptions. He threw only 8, which was 6th-best for his career. Maybe that will catch the eye of say the Steelers, who want to win games by not making mistakes. But there's nothing surprising about Wilson managing that in an offense that didn't let him throw down field very often and frequently settled for conservative checkdowns (or absorbed sacks) rather than forcing throws.
As for the Broncos, they're looking at either Jarrett Stidham or a rookie at quarterback. There is no way they can get into the bidding for someone like Kirk Cousins, and I'm not sure they could even swing Ryan Tannehill.
But based on what I saw out of Wilson last year, they'll be better at quarterback by simply having someone who's not absorbing sacks or reacting at a glacial pace on every third down pass play. Denver's cap situation is a disaster for a couple of years, but the on-field product will be better with someone else at quarterback.
--Andy Richardson