What makes the trade so much worse was the extension they gave him after the trade. If no extension was given, 23 would be his last year under contract and they could be free of Russ. No matter when they cut him, they are going to have a ton of dead cap money.
As weird as it sounds, I do believe he has improved since last year. In any event, very little of that fiasco yesterday can be laid at his doorstep. And I am far from being a Russell Wilson fan.
The Broncos play the Jets the following week, on October 8. So, two weeks of excitement ahead of us.
I'm going to say this regarding the Russ trade, they got the right QB to grab but haven't found a coach to FULLY utilize him. Remember the timeline of the trade, Denver gets Hackett as a HC who is loved by Aaron Rogers with the hopes of bringing him there. It has always been believed that the Denver Owner loves and wants a tall white QB. Aaron then decides to stay in Green Bay. They don't know what else to do since all the have is a poorly developed Drew Lock so Seattle comes in with a QB they could use whos also a superstar, it'll just cost you a lot.
By basic stats alone (QBR, complettion percentage, yds per game) Russ has improved over last season. He hired 2nd chef, a weightloss trainer, and a weightloss dietician to Team 3 to get him down a 10 lbs in the offseason and that's allowed him to get mobile again. Jabs at 3RAND aside, he has looked like a completely different guy over last year. I don't know whether it was scheme or Russ trying to create a pocket passer legacy because he thinks that will get him on the Mt. Rushmore of QBs, but he seemed to flatout refuse to run last season. By contrast I've seen him scrambling to extend plays and running when the opporitunity presents itself this season. Granted, I don't watch much Broncos beyond what I see on redzone and twitter lowlights. What I have seen from him looks different.
My impression has always been that he really likes he hear himself speak.
I can see both sides of the argument, and I think I mainly fall on the "keep it a spot foul" side of things, but only because it's the NFL. Every team could be expected to have a speed guy and a QB with a big arm, so a WR getting a step on a DB downfield would be an automatic jersey grab to prevent the big play. 15 yards isn't punishment enough for the defense in that case. The big-time nature of the punishment semi-assures that DBs will only resort to it if playing it clean would definitely result in a TD.
Usher isn't a name I've heard since that Boondocks episode like 15 years ago. How much of a draw is he right now? Did he go big on tiktoko or something?
There's no way in hell Russ was going to waive his no trade clause for any team that wasn't willing to give him what will probably be his final contract. If the Broncos hadn't had a handshake deal to make that extension happen the Broncos would probably still be fielding Drew Lock or have some other project QB to sabotage.
> I don't believe in him, I don't believe he has a future as a good player.
He needs to probably get out of there and find a team with a starting QB that isn't good. He can start as the number 2 with a battle to get the number 1 spot. Minnesota, Atlanta, possibly Seattle, Rams, and Cardinals could probably be a better spot than the Jets
The trade was in March, the extension was in September. If they waited just a 2 weeks and see how bad he was in the opener against the Seahawks, it would've saved them a much bigger headache.
Fair enough on Wilson, I might be being too harsh on the guy. Unfortunately now that he seems to have gotten his shit together, the rest of the team has fallen apart. And not due to injuries this time. I legitimately think the only way forard for the Bronco's is to make the call to cut/trade for Draft Picks as much as possible, Tank this season, and start a proper Rebuild.
Payton's getting $18M for 5 years. The stat I heard last year was NFL owners are collectivley paying $800M in coaching contracts for coaches who have been fired. I guess Walmart doesn't want bump that up another 12% just yet. I understand Sean getting time. He's the veteran fix it man who said all the right things to ownership to swindle them out of a huge bag. The hot take of "Sean Payton trashing how terrible the team was under Hackett is just him getting out in front of how terrible they're going to be this year" isn't seeming like that hot of a take anymore.
Full honesty, I hope Tank Bowl ends in a tie game, just for shits and giggles.
Business is BOOMIN spider man