The Denver Broncos hired former Super Bowl champion coach Sean Payton to right their ship.
So far, the Broncos are trending in the same direction as last season, which Payton called “one of the worst coaching performances in the history of the NFL.”
The Broncos are 0-3 after a historic shellacking at the hands of the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. And while franchise quarterback Russell Wilson hasn’t been an active detriment throughout entire games like he was last season, he could be on the chopping block unless he plays like an MVP candidate.
“It’s a Bill Parcells salvage strategy,” one coach told Mike Sando of The Athletic. “You’ve got to get a guy to be accountable and admit his own wrongdoings before you can get any progress. There’s a rock bottom or an admission that he needs to hit first, and Russell has never had to do that. When it got close to that before, he just moved on to Denver from Seattle.”
Sando noted that during a timeout against the Washington Commanders, Payton elected to meet with his quarterbacks coach and not Wilson. It could be nothing or it could be everything.
“I believe Wilson will have to play phenomenal to avoid getting benched,” an exec said, expressing the second line of thinking. “The way Payton has talked about Wilson, I would look for it after the Kansas City game, when they have a 10-day break.”
If Wilson is indeed benched, it will be interesting to see if the Broncos could move him (and his massive contract) before the trade deadline.
