Denver Broncos: Russell Wilson Won't Turn It Around For Sean Payton

When it comes to poor performances, the NFL has had its fair share. The Cleveland Browns won less than a handful of games in a 2-3 years stretch. The Miami Dolphins had a 1-15 season. The Detroit Lions went 0-16. Despite all that, nothing was as historically bad as the Denver Broncos against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Miami came close to setting many records in stats and points and they did so with ease. Yet there was one thing that was abundantly clear after that beat down, Russell Wilson isn’t going to be the one who turns the page for Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos.

On paper, if you look at Wilson’s stats he had a respectable game. He threw 38 times, completing 23 passes, for 306 yards, a TD, an INT, and only took one sack. Those are the kind of numbers an average to slightly above-average QB would put up in today’s NFL. So fans might be being a little hard on Russ. The real heat should be on Sean Payton who Denver trusted to be the man with a plan and Sunday showed, he doesn’t have one.

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So even though Sean Payton says they will eventually get it right and keep putting in the work, it’s what he didn’t say (or do) during or after the game that spoke volumes. He has come out and said that no one will be fired after that blowout loss to the Dolphins. Rightfully so, the Dolphins are an explosive team and everyone has their bad days. Still, something is fishy and it isn’t Miami.

The Denver Broncos when into the fourth quarter down 49-13 and Miami would quickly make a QB change to take Tua Tagovailoa out and let the backups take over. The game was well in hand so it made sense. Then the Dolphins would still score one more time before Denver would return the kickoff that would bring it to 63-20 with just under nine minutes left.

Teams are no strangers to comebacks so you keep your guys in when there’s a chance. But Payton never took Russell Wilson out despite the Broncos having no shot at a comeback. Something about that seems off. You can argue reps and taking your lumps all you want, but teams don’t typically leave their starting QB in and risk injury when those games get that out of hand.

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It almost seems as if Sean Payton is putting Russell Wilson on display for fans to see how bad things can get before he eventually moves on at QB. Coaches are always going to put their guy in and if their current QB isn’t the guy they believe in, they’ll move on quickly. The Denver Broncos might move on quickly. The problem is they stuck themselves with a massive contract and dead money. So when they do make a move to dump him they’ll have to assure fans it’ll be without question that it was done for a reason. Denver might be strapped for cash for a while. Despite Sean Payton’s pride, there might not be any fixing the veteran QB.