The Pittsburgh Steelers signed QB Russell Wilson this offseason for approximately the sum required by the Loch Ness Monster. He can’t possibly be good because the Denver Broncos released him rather than commit another $37 million to him. Indeed, he can’t even be reasonably intelligent if the Broncos were prepared to part with him two years after trading for him and giving him a massive, and massively stupid, new contract.
Or maybe that’s what Broncos head coach Sean Payton and his cohorts want the public to believe. It’s widely accepted that Payton and Russell Wilson never meshed, likely on or off the field. Payton, who benefited from having Drew Brees, inherited Wilson and his contract when he accepted the Broncos job in 2023. The year ended with Wilson on the bench after refusing to waive injury guarantees in his deal.
And despite the fact that he’s been gone for a while, we still have stories coming out denigrating Wilson from a Broncos perspective. Although this one came from Cleveland Browns fan Aditi Kinkhabwala, on a Browns podcast. The gist of her report is that Payton had to simplify his offense because Wilson wasn’t grasping it.
Those in Denver dispute that account, and indeed indicate that she misunderstands what she heard. She references the idea that the Broncos had to reduce their play calls to two-word phrases for Wilson’s benefit. They did use two-word phrases, but that’s not the reason.
“There’s only one person that’s leaking this stuff out, because it only benefits one person”, the hosts of Broncos Country Tonight said yesterday, including Ryan Edwards and Benjamin Allbright along with Grant Smith.
“Well, they were doing that anyway, because that’s what Sean Payton does with the personnel groupings because they shuffle in and out all the time”, the hosts said of Kinkhabwala’s claim that Wilson is the reason. “That doesn’t have anything to do with Russ and the play calls”.
All of the hosts vociferously attacked the implications of Kinkhabwala’s assertions, seemingly coming after his intelligence. They all acknowledge that Wilson had other problems in Denver’s, and Payton’s, system, but not a lack of understanding.
“The idea that Russell Wilson can’t get verbose play calls is frankly stupid”, one host added. “Russell Wilson had his best season under Brian Schottenheimer, who has famously long, verbose play calls”. Schottenheimer served three seasons as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator from 2018-2020.
Kinkhabwala’s report always sounded incredible to begin with, and those with actual Denver connections evidently agree. Her connections are seemingly close to former Steelers QB Kenny Pickett than to anything relating to Wilson.
“Are we at the point where we’re slandering people just to slander people?”, the hosts asked. This, responding to such comments from Kinkhabwala such as, “There is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very valid reason that Sean Payton…is saying I’m going to pay this guy millions upon millions of dollars to be nowhere near my locker room”.
There are many more details into Wilson’s release that people prefer to gloss over. For example, as I hinted at, if they didn’t release him when they did, then an additional year of his contract would have become fully guaranteed at $37 million.
Yes, the Broncos agreed to take huge losses to part with him. But they saved money by doing so as well, and they clearly had more commitment to Payton than to Wilson. Let’s see how that works out for them with Bo Nix as their new quarterback. Meanwhile, Wilson and many other quarterbacks will continue to wear wristbands. And Payton will continue using his two-word play calls to set up his offense, no matter what leaks out there.
