The kickoff for the NFL season is right around the corner, and it seems as though tensions in some locker rooms might already be running pretty high.
One of the weirdest storylines from last year’s NFL season was the sudden fall off from the Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson. The longtime Seattle Seahawk signed a 5 year, $245 million dollar deal with the Broncos heading into last year, and it looked like the Super Bowl winning quarterback was going to be the perfect fit for a talented Denver team.
However, things went south fast, and Wilson simply looked like a completely different player (and not in a good way) in the mile-high city. There were calls for Wilson, who is under contract to be a Bronco for the next six years, to be benched last year in some of the season’s lowest points. The team with high expectations finished with 5 wins and 12 losses under head coach Nathaniel Hackett, who was fired after the first 15 games.
So this offseason, the Broncos went out and got one of the winningest and best offensive coaches in the business: Sean Payton. The former New Orleans Saints coach was brought in to shake things up and breathe new life into a struggling Broncos squad.
He’s already showing that he isn’t afraid to put some of the team’s biggest stars in their place, and he’s definitely not scared to hurt anyone’s feelings. Payton allegedly even showed his team a clip of a 2022 Ford Bronco driving off a cliff, symbolizing that last year is in the past (and that apparently it was as bad as a car crash?).
One of the biggest issues so far has been the butting of heads between Sean Payton and Russell Wilson, but that hasn’t stopped the head coach from speaking his mind.
According to ESPN, Payton told his 9-time Pro-Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson that in order to salvage his career after a horrific 2022-2023 season, he needs to stop worrying about his image and “Russell Inc.”
Payton even went as far to tell Wilson:
“Will you f**king stop kissing all the babies? You’re not running for public office.”
That’s one way to light a fire underneath your franchise quarterback…
And Sean Payton really doesn’t have much of a choice considering how much damn money they have tied up in Russell Wilson. The team kind of needs him to carry his weight of the deal, or else they’ll toil in mediocrity for almost a decade as Wilson continues to collect his lucrative paychecks.
Hopefully Wilson, Payton, and the Broncos get it all figured out this year, otherwise it will be another long season full of misery, regret, and “Broncos Country, Let’s Ride” memes:
