Why You Shouldn't Be Surprised Russ Got Benched

When Brady went to the Bucs and won a championship his first year, many wrote it off as Brady being Brady. Buying a QB and winning immediately never works, but of course Brady achieved the impossible.

Then the Rams did the same thing the next year, trading for Matthew Stafford after being the “one QB away” team of the previous years. And against odds that too worked, marking two straight seasons of veteran QBs winning titles in their first year with a new team.

Naturally, as other front offices watched these respective organizations parade through their city streets (rivers in Tampa’s case), they were all looking for their Brady or Stafford, trying to be the next team to find their missing piece.

Denver has been a more frequent rider of the QB carousel than the kid who lost his parents at the town fair. Get off the ride, catch your breath, and get right back on, again and again and again.

Since Peyton retired after Von Miller won him a Super Bowl, the Broncos have had 12 starting QBs. In six years!! From Trevor Siemian to Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler to Drew Lock, and several others, Denver’s tried everything. They tried new young guns looking for a breakthrough. They tried old vets like Teddy Bridgewater and Flacco to provide a hopeful spark. And nothing worked. All that juggling for a total of one winning season and zero (0) playoff appearances.

In 2022 the Broncos finally made their move. They traded the farm for Super Bowl champ and disgruntled Seattle QB Russell Wilson. “The Broncos have found their answer at quarterback” was the start of the Denver Broncos official blog. The team that was a QB away now had their QB, and expectations shot through the roof.

The ride since has been, well, catastrophic, to put it lightly. It’s like when you finally get the balls to ask out the hot girl that’s way out of your league after her boyfriend shockingly dumped her. She says yes, and you think it’s happily ever after. Until Friday night when you go out with her and realize she’s duller than a 10 year old butter knife. Nothing in common. Different senses of humor. And your uncle’s recycled dad jokes make you laugh more than anything she said all night. 

As the Broncos learned, one man’s trash is sometimes just trash. Seattle was happy to give Russ up. They chose Pete Carroll over him. Russ’s last season in Seattle was injury prone and led to sub-Russ-like numbers, and while most, including the Broncos thought of it as a blip in the radar, I’ve wondered if Seattle knew it would become the new norm.

Russ’s first season in Denver was a nightmare. Worse than any could’ve imagined, Broncos country was killing for him to get back to the 2021 version of Russ that Seattle happily shipped away. He posted his lowest passer rating, QBR, completion percentage, and TD total in his career, and the Broncos had the worst offense in the NFL, averaging 16.9 PPG. 

If the Broncos scored 18 points every game during regulation, they would’ve been 11-6. They were 5-12. Read that again.

While plenty blame was thrown at Russ, the majority of it was directed to Hackett. And fairly at that. He never should’ve gotten the job, and in one season wrote a visual version of “How Not to Coach a Football Team for Dummies” with his constant incomprehensible decision making.

So Hackett was hacked, and in comes the second savior for the Broncos, Sean Payton. Football savants much more in tune with schematics than myself said from day one the Sean Payton/Russell Wilson fit, well, didn’t fit. They were polar opposites in terms of football style. But despite the round peg and square hole, Hall of Famers are Hall of Famers, so many believed it would work.

I for one didn’t buy it, and thought the Russell Wilson of last year was closer to the real Russell Wilson than the one our memories conjure from his Seattle days. With a preseason prediction of 8-9, I assumed some semblance of improvement, cause they couldn’t get worse, but nothing league altering. Sitting at 7-8, I’m looking awfully smart right now *yawn*.

This year got off to a worse start than last if that was possible, starting 0-3 punctuated by a 70-20 shit-kicking by the Dolphins. The Sean Payton hype was gone, and questions about him were already simmering, especially after some choice words to begin his tenure.

After another couple losses, the Broncos righted the ship and ripped off 5 straight wins, all against playoff caliber teams. But was all right? Russ threw for less than 200 yards in four of those five wins, and the style which they were winning hardly seemed sustainable. The defense was a turnover machine, forcing 16 turnovers in that five game stretch with a +13 differential. That just can’t last. 

And it hasn’t. Since the winning streak was broken, the Broncos have lost three of four, forcing just three turnovers with a -5 differential. 

We all know this is a turnover league, but I think it highlights a bigger point, and one I believe was the driving force of Russ’s benching: Russ no longer possesses the ability to win games on his own. 

The defense in their five game winning streak turned the ball over at an historical clip. The offense consistently had short fields and extra possessions. And they were still barely winning games. The offense gained more than 300 yards once in that winning streak and was outgained in three of those five wins. To illuminate the point, the offense has notched more than 300 yards of offense twice since week 6. So while Russ was winning, he was winning by not turning the ball over and relying on their defense to wreak havoc rather than putting the team on his shoulders. 

You don’t pay a QB $40-50 million a year to let the defense win games for him. You don’t pay a QB $40-50 million a year to throw more than 260 yards twice a season. But’s that’s what Russ is. That's what he's done. And that’s why he’s benched. 

Now I agree with many that the Broncos haven't handled this situation well. I agree that Sean Payton has felt more like Judas than Jesus this year. But I don’t blame either of them for benching Russ.

Contracts have outs for a reason. The Broncos have one with Russ, and they’re taking it. And they should. He’s come nowhere close to living up to the contract he signed, and in a show-me league, he’s shown that he doesn’t deserve to live his out. The Broncos save some money, and can use it elsewhere as they hop back on the all-familiar QB carousel again this offseason.