ORLANDO, Fla. — Some day, it will be the saddest chapter in the otherwise cheery-laden Book on the Broncos.
What went wrong with the Russell Wilson experiment? All those top draft picks given up for trade. All that money given up before he played a down. And now after two years, all the Broncos have to show for him is that monumental dead cap charge.
"We took a shot on a quarterback who’s had a lot of success in this league,'' Broncos general manager George Paton said Monday during a break from the NFL owners meetings at the JW Marriott Grand Lakes resort. "Nine pro Bowls, won the most the first 10 years in this league.
"It wasn’t just Russ," Paton said. "There’s a lot of contributing factors as to why we didn’t win. At the end of the day, we didn’t play good enough offense. We didn’t win enough games. I’m accountable for that. No one tried harder than Russ to make this work. Appreciate his effort, the professionalism he showed. Total pro. Wish him the best in Pittsburgh, he’s going to a good team. Just wish the best.”
Broncos head coach Sean Payton said even with the $85 million wasted in dead cap, it was not a difficult decision to release Wilson. But part of the reason as to why came later, when Payton was asked about how the Broncos would score more points in 2024.
“Well I think this: No. 1, we can’t take as many sacks,'' Payton said. "If you looked at any of the data relative to what it does for your drives, I think that was the big thing that hurt us a year ago.”
Still, Wilson was only around for the last two seasons in Denver. The Broncos' slump goes back much farther. Denver has gone eight seasons without reaching the playoffs; seven without a winning record. Where has this team primarily fallen short?
"I think it starts with stability at the head coach,'' Paton said in an interview with 9NEWS. "We've had three coaches, really four coaches in three years. You're not going to win many games doing that.
"It starts with the head coach, and we have the right head coach, Sean Payton," Paton said. "You could see that last year. We were a team that was 1-5, and everyone gave up on us, and yet this team stood together. We got back in the mix, we were relevant in December and that's a credit to Sean and his coaching staff.''
Next, the team needs to find a quarterback. An upper-echelon quarterback. The Broncos have the No. 12 pick. Four quarterbacks figure to be gone by the time they pick, even if they move up a few spots. But they can still get a quality quarterback.
"We like the group, I think it's seven deep, six, seven deep,'' Paton said. "It's been fun scouting them. It's ongoing. We're still going to some Pro Days this week, and we'll get in our meetings Monday. But it's a fun group to evaluate. All different strengths and weaknesses, but it is a talented group."
So even with more proven starters leaving from the Broncos' 8-9 team in 2023 (Justin Simmons, Josey Jewell, Jerry Jeudy, Lloyd Cushenberry III, Wilson) than coming in (Brandon Jones, Malcolm Roach, Cody Barton), Paton's expectations for 2024?
"We want to take that next step,'' Paton said. "We had a taste of December (playoff contention), our players did. We won five in a row, six out of seven, obviously not good enough – we need to take that next step to get in the playoffs and make a push.''
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