The Denver Broncos lost (again) in Week 6 to their AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs. That drops the team to 1-4 on the season, and the fire sale has started, with Denver releasing Frank Clark and trading Randy Gregory in the last week. There will likely be a few more moves by Sean Payton and the front office ahead of the 2023 NFL trade deadline. However, the big move will come next April, when the Broncos move on from Russell Wilson and pick a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft. Here’s why that is a move the Broncos must make.
Russell Wilson is washed
The first, and biggest, reason for the Broncos to move on from Russell Wilson is that he simply doesn’t have it anymore.
Whatever the mental and physical skill set was that helped Wilson lead the Seattle Seahawks to two Super Bowls and win one is now long gone. Wilson was never a QB who jumped off the screen for specific reasons. He didn’t have a cannon arm, wasn’t a pinpoint accurate passer, and he could run, but he wasn’t a “running QB.”
It was easy last season to blame Nathaniel Hackett for Wilson’s struggles. But now, six games into the Sean Payton Era, the same problems are still there. Wilson isn’t seeing his receivers downfield, he’s not making the right decisions, and he’s not using his legs when he needs to.
In the Broncos Week 6 matchup with the Chiefs, Wilson went 13-of-22 for 95 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He’s now on track for over 11 interceptions, and if he hits 12, it would be a career single-season high.
Maybe the supporting cast in Denver is just that bad, and maybe Sean Payton is just Nathaniel Hackett with better PR in the end. But neither of those things seems like the true root of Wilson’s issues. It seems like he just doesn’t have it anymore, and now you have to question whether he ever had it at all or if Pete Carroll just worked even more magic than we know.
It’s going to be incredibly painful from a financial perspective to move on from Russell Wilson before the 2026 offseason, but at this point, biting the bullet now and taking a massive $85 million cap hit — which the team can spread out over two seasons if they play it right — is a better option than keeping Russ under center for 45 more games.
The 2024 NFL Draft is loaded with potential star quarterbacks
Bosses love to say, “Don’t just come to me with a problem. Come to me with a solution.”
Well, the problem that Sean Payton has is that Russell Wilson is washed. But don’t worry! I’ve also come with a solution: The 2024 NFL Draft.
The other reason now is the time to move on from Wilson is that the upcoming draft should be stacked with quarterbacks who could become stars in the league. Like all years, some of these quarterbacks — both the expected and unexpected ones — will succeed, and some will fail. But for teams that need a franchise QB, there will be more flavors of signal-callers in this draft than in recent memory.
It starts with the likely No. 1 overall pick, Caleb Williams from USC. Williams is an absolute stud, and he’s right up there as a prospect with recent near-no-doubters like Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow.
After that, North Carolina’s Drake Maye is a strong No. 2 QB prospect who has a dual-threat game that NFL teams now covet. Behind these two, the next group of quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft will shake out as the season goes along and the combine comes. But the list of signal-callers who could enter this draft and be potential first-round picks is long.
The players include Michael Pennix Jr. (Washington), Quinn Ewers (Texas), JJ McCarthy (Michigan) Shedeur Sanders (Colorado), Jordan Travis (Florida State), Bo Nix (Oregon), and Spencer Rattler (South Carolina).
Behind this group, QBs who could go on Friday or Saturday of draft weekend include Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma), Jayden Daniels (LSU), Kyle McCord (Ohio State), Tyler Van Dyke, (Miami), Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss), Cameron Ward (Washington State), and Sam Hartman (Notre Dame).
Not all these QBs will pan out, and several may not even come out in 2024. However, the class should be deep no matter what, and the Broncos need to get in on that.
Right now, at 1-5 after the Broncos Week 6 loss, the team is absolutely in the No. 1 pick conversation and should end up with at least a top-five pick if things continue going the way they are.
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