According to Wilson himself, he went to a place that wants to win, and where he doesn't have to carry the team. And it's a damn good thing, because his performance this season puts him 26th in DYAR (production), 25th in DVOA (per-snap productivity), 20th in ANY/A, 28th in passer rating, and 30th in QBR. And it doesn't look like he's getting any closer to being able to carry his new team, having had yet another terrible performance on Sunday, this one against a defense missing five of its starters.
Was that the "clutch performer" (that his apologists claim he is) that fumbled on a sack on third and four on the Broncos' final drive against the Titans, got bailed out by a teammate recovering it, and then threw an easy interception to a defender on the goal line with no receivers near that defender?
The Broncos' defense is really good. They're the best scoring defense in the league, allowing just 16.6 points per game so far. For the eighth time in nine games, they held their opponent to fewer than 20 points, and for the fifth time in those eight games, the offense failed so badly that the team lost anyway. The Broncos now have the absolute worst scoring offense in the league, with just 14.6 points per game. Yikes.
Even at the we-thought-it-was-low-just-a-few-months-ago cap number of $17M, Wilson looks like the opposite of a bargain for the Broncos. And since I still dislike the Broncos from when the Seahawks were in the AFC West, I love that they're stuck with Wilson for at least two more seasons after this one, and even in 2025, they'd have to eat nearly $50M of dead cap to get rid of him, so unless the Broncos start planning now for being able to get free of Wilson in 2025, he might be on their roster until 2026, when the dead-money hit will be "just" $31.2M, almost certain to be smaller as a percentage of the cap than what the Seahawks were willing to eat to get rid of him this season. On the night of the season opener, I replied to a comment from a fellow .NETter who had been predicting Wilson and his team would put up 40 on the Seahawks, and I asked if he meant 40 over Wilson's career, because Wilson and the Broncos are currently at just 40% of that goal. I even made the point that night that if the Seahawks don't play the Broncos again before 2026 (the next time the NFC West is scheduled to play the AFC West as things stand now in the NFL), Wilson might not be a starter in the NFL by the time the Broncos and Seahawks face each other again.
I love that the Seahawks were able to get enough out of Wilson on a rookie contract for the exciting 2012-2014 seasons, including the Super Bowl title for which I'd been waiting for over 37 years. I actually have a Russell Wilson beach towel, a present from my S.O. (it was a Seahawks thing she found that she could get for me down here), and I'll happily keep using it, but at this point it's much more because of who gave it to me than because of who's on it. Still, it's not like I have to hold my nose to use it or something. In addition to being a present from somebody who cares about me, it's a Seahawks-related item, and when I use it, I can choose to remember the good-for-Seahawks-fans things about Wilson: some great seasons, some great moments, XLVIII, and the huge haul of players and picks the Seahawks got from the Broncos for him, helping build the base of the exciting and fun-to-watch team the Seahawks are currently putting on the field.
