LAS VEGAS — With the benching of quarterback Russell Wilson contrasting with their team’s three or four win overall improvement, Broncos head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton are headed for an important offseason filled with question marks on how to best push the franchise forward.
The 8-8 Broncos can post their first winning season in seven years if they beat the AFC West-rival Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon at Allegiant Stadium (kickoff, 2:25 p.m. MST). However, one of the Broncos’ first goals for 2024 is to snap their now eight-year postseason drought.
Among the issues the Broncos must address during the offseason that begins Monday back at the team’s Centura Health headquarters:
*Quarterback
Here we go again. Wilson seemed to be a much-needed breakthrough at the position when the Broncos acquired him from Seattle in March 2022. But after going 4-11 last season while posting a career-worst 27th passer rating followed by a much-improved 7-8 mark and 7th-best passer rating, Wilson was demoted to No. 2 quarterback by Payton with two games remaining primarily for performance reasons -- although his lucrative and complicated contract cannot be ignored as a secondary factor.
The expectation now is Wilson, who has a complete no-trade clause, will be released by mid-March with a post-June 1 designation, leaving the Broncos to again seek a new starting quarterback. Current quarterback Jarrett Stidham is the Broncos’ 13th starting quarterback since Peyton Manning retired following the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 season of 2015.
The others: Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Brandon Allen, Drew Lock, Jeff Driskel, Phillip Lindsay/Kendall Hinton, Brett Rypien, Teddy Bridgewater and Wilson.
The upcoming free-agent quarterback class will include Kirk Cousins, Ryan Tannehill, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Gardner Minshew, Jameis Winston, Flacco and Lock.
In the draft, quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Drake Maye are expected to be long gone and too far away to trade up from the Broncos’ middle of the first-round position (they are currently No. 14), but there’s a chance the likes of Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix and Quinn Ewers could be in play.
*Coaching staff
There are always surprises, starting with assistant coaches getting hired away by other teams. Payton and Paton are expected to take a few days next week to evaluate their roster and staff before making any decisions but the bulk of Payton’s staff is expected to return.
*Football personnel department
Despite national speculation surrounding Paton as general manager because of the Wilson trade and contract extension, Paton works well with Payton and owner Greg Penner. Given a strong head coach and owner, Paton remains a strong administrator and talent evaluator works well in a supportive and experienced dynamic.
While Payton has significant influence with the team’s football operations, it would be Penner who would make the ultimate call on any change of this magnitude. And by all accounts Penner appears to like and respect his general manager.
And the Broncos did make a significant jump this season from 5-12 in 2022 to 8-8 with one game remaining in 2023. No matter what happens Sunday, the Broncos have made the largest year over year win improvement since the start of the Manning era in 2012. Record aside, Payton earlier this year was in the conversation for NFL Coach of the Year for leading his team from a horrific 1-5 start to playoff contention while seemingly establishing a hard-nosed, mentally tough culture.
Yes, the Wilson trade is now officially among the four worst – or best depending on a team’s point of view -- in NFL history, along with deals that involved John Elway, Herschel Walker and Ricky Williams.
The Broncos sent starting tight end Noah Fant, defensive tackle Shelby Harris, backup quarterback Drew Lock, two, first-round draft picks, two second-round picks and a fifth-round pick to Seattle in exchange for the quarterback Wilson and a fourth-round pick that turned out to be defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike, who played little as a rookie and was suspended this year for gambling.
Seattle reached the playoffs in 2022 while the Broncos finished 5-12. The Seahawks and Broncos are both 8-8 this year although Seattle can again reach the playoffs with a win Sunday at Arizona and a Green Bay home loss to the Bears. Has it been mentioned the Broncos missed the playoffs for an eight consecutive season?
Given greater context that only time can provide, the Seahawks would have to convert their draft pick haul into a Super Bowl or two – as the Cowboys did in the early 1990s -- before the Wilson trade rivals the Herschel Walker deal as the most lopsided in NFL history.
*Players
Several key players are about to become unrestricted free agents. With the Broncos about to eat more than $37 million of Wilson’s $39 million salary for 2024, the team can’t re-sign them all. The list of free agents includes starters Lloyd Cushenberry III, Adam Trautman and Michael Burton on offense; Josey Jewell, Mike Purcell, Fabian Moreau, P.J. Locke and Jonathan Harris on defense; and kicker Wil Lutz.
No. 2 receiver Jerry Jeudy has been involved in trade talks twice in the past year and other veterans may be let go.
As for adding players in the draft, the Broncos have their middle of the first-round pick but they dealt their second-round selection to New Orleans for the rights to hire Payton. The Broncos did get a third-round pick back from the Saints in the Payton trade and also have picks in the fourth round, two in the fifth and one in the sixth.
The Broncos have needs at quarterback, pass rusher, cornerback, running back, offensive line, defensive line and possibly receiver and safety.
That’s all. Year two of the Sean Payton era essentially begins Monday. The next three or four months are not likely to be dull.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Sports
