How did it get so bad for the Broncos & Russell Wilson? | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz is joined by senior NFL writer Jori Epstein and senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson to discuss Denver’s decision to bench its starting quarterback - likely ending the 35-year-old’s time with the franchise. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - part of the “Zero Blitz” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
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JASON FITZ: Russell Wilson is being benched by Sean Payton. The Denver Broncos have a different starting quarterback. This feels like a shocking decision to many because of the money, because of the name recognition, and because the Broncos are still in the playoff hunt.
So, Charles Robinson, usually we shoot the you-know-what at the beginning, but we're going to get straight to the breaking news. How did we get here? What's the latest that you know about this situation?
CHARLES ROBINSON: I think the crux of this is Sean Payton is a really detail-oriented coach. And he wants to be able to run his full suite of offense. I think he feels like he has not been able to do that with Russell Wilson.
He even made a comment prior to this benching, where he said, we're average to below average in multiple areas on offense. And then he cut himself off, but he started to basically make the statement of, do we need to start taking stuff out of the offense? And if you're in December, with a veteran quarterback, and you're staring at having to remove things from your offensive playbook, there is a significant disconnect between that head coach and that quarterback. And so I think that's part of how we got here.
A lot of what's going to be talked about here is there's $37 million that becomes guaranteed in 2025 in March, and that's guaranteed for injury. So if Russ were to get hurt in these last two games and can't pass a physical in March, they're on the hook for that $37 million.
So I think over the course of this season, for Sean Payton-- and this is a Sean Payton decision, by the way. We know that. Jori can speak to that as well. This was a coaching decision here, not a front office decision. Sean Payton looked at Russell Wilson, and was no longer comfortable with him being able to run the offense the way that he liked.
Where is everybody at in the organization? Does everybody agree with this decision that's been made now? Is the front office and Sean Payton, are they in lockstep on this? They'll say that publicly. I wonder if that's actually the case behind closed doors. I don't know if it is or isn't.
But this is quite a significant decision that's being made by Sean Payton here. And I think there's no doubt in my mind that Russell Wilson is absolutely done in Denver. They just need to figure out the mechanics of how to separate from him come January.
JORI EPSTEIN: I think as a quarterback, in particular, it's very hard to come back from something like this. You're the leader of the team. This isn't just like a cornerback in the lineup. This is the guy who is the face of the team and the one who's sending the messages to the team. And the person I talked to definitely agreed with that.
They pointed out that Russ is a captain. You are benching your captain, who's making a ton of money, and running the offense, and by the way, is not statistically playing that bad.
It reminds me, the way [? that C-Rob ?] is talking about it, the way that Sean McVay felt about Jared Goff. And it doesn't mean that the quarterback is not a capable quarterback, but there gets to a point where the coach and quarterback-- the coach does not feel like the quarterback can do what the coach wants.
And there are a handful of coaches in this league, whether that's McVay, that's Shanahan, that's Belichick, that's Sean Payton, who have done enough and have enough skins on the wall that if they decide the quarterback is not right for them anymore, they can make that decision.
We knew Sean Payton could make this decision. I'm still very surprised that he is making this decision right now.