My Thoughts on the Russell Wilson Trade

By Spencer Knoll

Screw Your Opinion

I know many people could care less about NFL football, but I am going to dish my opinion for you all to read since I don’t really care. This is big news to me, and it is meant to be talked about.

Overview

In short, the Seattle Seachickens traded their elite quarterback, Russell Wilson, to the Denver Broncos (2022 Super Bowl Champions) for quite a lot. Maybe too much. My Broncos, the team I have followed through thick and thin since the grand year of 2011, quite literally gave up their entire future for this man. Don’t get me wrong, Wilson is a top-10 quarterback that will most likely deliver this poverty franchise back to the playoffs and hopefully the Super Bowl. The Donkeys have been trying to accomplish this mission ever since their Super Bowl win in 2015 and the retirement of hall of fame member Peyton Manning. And absolutely nothing has ever come out of it. Since then, there have been 11 different quarterbacks under center, three head coaches, multiple coaching staff changes, and a new general manager. It’s been six years since that sorry team has been relevant, and it’s really sad. But this time, we found our guy.

My Reaction

It filled me with immense amounts of joy to find out that we have been brought back to relevancy this afternoon when I was alerted by an ESPN notification in the middle of math class. Thank you to Mr. Schefter for breaking the news. I paused on the math test I was studying for and quickly directed my attention to the notification. Immediately, I was thrown into a state of shock, leaving me staring at my phone, speechless, for a solid ten minutes. I was in a state of shock similar to that of when people can remember where they were for an important historical event. For instance, my Nona can remember where she was when JFK was shot and my Dad can recall what he was doing when the planes hit the Twin Towers. That moment I will definitely remember. Maybe on much less of a scale, however.

A History

Anyways, when I came to, I realized that the morons in the Denver front office had finally come to their senses. George Paton, (the general manager) does in fact have a head on his shoulders. We needed a quarterback and he got us one. Teddy Two Gloves and Horse Cock Lock weren’t living up to standards. And let us not act like Mr. John Elway wasn’t behind the scenes of all this like we all know he was. He is the former general manager, but I have no doubt he had some influence on this decision. Elway has had an immense impact on this team in the past and isn’t really known for taking risks when it comes to the future. He was never able to draft quarterbacks or hire coaches well, and that is what ruined this team post-Manning. They hit a cliff and basically hung in midair. The Broncos have a tendency to draft extremely talented players in different positions, which explains their young elite defense and solid offensive corp, but historically, they have never come through on the position of quarterback. The last solid quarterback they drafted that actually meant something to the franchise was in fact, John Elway. But the Russell Wilson news is classic Denver Broncos. If you can’t draft one, you go on an Easter egg hunt for one. And they will do that by whatever means necessary.

Starting now, I will give a history for those uneducated on the plight of the Denver Donkeys. Let’s start with Brock Osweiler. Brock was the first quarterback after Manning and is the sole reason for leading us to the Super Bowl. He went under center for half of our Super Bowl-winning season and marched us through the playoffs and through Tom Brady just so Peyton could come off the sidelines and get some publicity. That whole season belongs to Brock and our dominant defense that year, not Peyton. I still love him with all my heart, but he didn’t do much but hand the ball off and throw a few checkdowns. It goes for a happy ending, however, and I am glad that Peyton finally got another ring. Anyways, Brock went on to play one more season in Denver before moving on to the Houston Texans after Gary Kubiak, our coach left. He didn’t even play a full year with the Texans before he completely robbed the front office in Houston of 72 million dollars and walked off into the sunset. Truly, the greatest heist ever pulled off. Well done, Brock.

Moving on, the Broncos began their dark age. The first losing season in quite a while, with the quarterback under center being a man named Trevor Sieman. Trevor wasn’t that bad of a field general, it is just the system that ruined him in my opinion. Vance Joseph, the coach at the time, completely deprived the team of any kind of functional offense they had ever known. They finished a sorry 5-11 that year in 2017 and framed poor Trevor for their issues. They continued with the Trevor experiment and started their draft pick, Paxton Lynch, for a few games, which turned out horribly. Many people in Denver resent Paxton Lynch so much they can’t even say his name. Saying his name here is like saying “Voldemort” at Hogwarts. Vance Joseph kept his job for another year after that debacle, by some miracle.

Enter Case Keenum. Mr. Keenum was a disgruntled quarterback valued at a high price testing the waters in free agency after he got absolutely destroyed by the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs the following year. Minnesota wasn’t cutting it for him I guess. Anyways, the Broncos signed him and had a lot of people here hoping that he would return us to our old selves. He did perpetrate the Minneapolis Miracle after all. Case wasn’t actually that bad either: he went on quite a run with the Vikings in that 2017 season. When he came to Denver, it showed quickly something was off. He didn’t fit in our system, and the atrocious defensive mind of Vance Joseph ruined yet again, another quarterback. Shocking. Case only stuck around for the 2018 season and to my knowledge, ended up as the backup for the Cleveland Browns. Poor guy.

After the multiple failed experiments, John Elway decided to take matters into his own hands. He fired Vance Joseph in 2018 and hired Vic Fangio from the Chicago Bears for the 2019 season. The Broncos went on to sign free agent Joe Flacco, the elderly man coming from Baltimore because his team gave up on him for a much better prospect in Lamar Jackson. The Ravens made the right decision anyway. I guess the Broncos thought that Flacco could provide some wisdom to the team, but with such a young group of guys, it wasn’t doable. Joe only started half a season for the Broncos until the team fully realized he would never be his former Super Bowl-winning self again. The Broncos moved on to the next best option in their second-round draft pick in Drew Lock.

Drew showed some promise for half that season but was held back in a defensive system. Starting off so early and against strong opponents wasn’t that smart of an idea, but we were out of options. The next season in 2020, people were high on the Broncos to make a push for the playoffs with a young quarterback in Horse Cock Lock and solid offensive stars in their recent draft picks. Von Miller was still leading the defense, which consistently put up record numbers through all the failed experiments. Drew was still too fresh out of the oven and clearly wasn’t having his talents utilized by the morons leading the team. They blamed Drew and went through a cycle of multiple backup quarterbacks due to the pandemic. At one point, they were so desperate for one that they started some random guy from the practice squad. What a mess.

By 2021, many people had given up hope or stopped believing in any kind of success to come from them. Pulling a classic Broncos, they traded the Carolina Panthers a sixth-round pick for Teddy Bridgewater. At this point, John Elway must’ve realized what a horrible job he had done and “stepped down” for a new GM to take place. George Paton from the Vikings filled in and started off by drafting the best class that year. This gave folks some hope, but not much. Bridgewater was only a serviceable quarterback, players were getting injured, and Fangio and his offense weren’t helping. Bridgewater was decent, but was ruined by playcalling and maybe himself. He got injured towards the end of the season, which was maybe a good thing since he couldn’t finish games. Drew Lock went in for the last two or three games and actually didn’t play horrible- he showed some signs of improvement. But let us not forget the fact that the Broncos finished the season with a 7-10 record, and the new record for most consecutive losses to a single team. The Kansas City Chiefs. God, how I despise them. Our new general manager took initiative after that season and cleaned the house. Paton hired offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett from the Green Bay Packers as Fangio’s replacement. This had a lot of people believing that Aaron Rodgers would be coming to Denver, due to his connection with Hackett and our new offensive coordinator. That didn’t end up happening.

As of Recently

Fast forward to today, Rodgers signed a four-year deal with the Packers, keeping him in Green Bay, and leaving a lot of Broncos fans, like myself, wondering what our next move was. I was a little disappointed, but I never liked the Rodgers idea. Even though he is back-to-back MVP, he hasn’t taken the Packers anywhere in 12 years and is quickly coming to the end of his career. He is 38 years old after all.

But once the Russell Wilson news broke, I was speechless. Nobody expected that trade to happen- not even the big news outlets predicted it. The Broncos gave Seattle a hefty package involving Noah Fant, Shelby Harris, Horse Cock, two firsts, two seconds, and a fifth. Goodbye future, hello win now. In return, the Seahawks, obviously in a rebuilding phase, dished us their long-time franchise quarterback and a fourth-round pick. In all honesty, I’m not mad, in fact, I’m estactic to see how this will turn out.

Wilson is coming into a system where the pieces are all there for him to succeed. He has a new offensive-minded coach in Hackett, a solid defense with multiple studs, and a defensive coordinator who just won the Super Bowl with Los Angeles. Our offense consists of a powerful run game, young receivers, and an offensive line that can hold much better than whatever the hell they were doing in Seattle. At least this way, Wilson won’t have to get sacked every time he snaps the goddamn ball. He has escapability and a pretty deep ball, which I think will be hard to stop with an offensive line like ours. Hopefully, the Broncos can use Russell’s abilities to their advantage and get things going on the passing game. Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton had some pretty bad seasons last year and it hurts to not see them in the endzone where they should be. I blame Pat Shurmur and Vic for that one. With Jeudy’s speed and footwork, I expect him to become something similar to DeAndre Hopkins when Russell Wilson is throwing him the ball. He’ll go from having a depressing 0 touchdowns this year to multiple in 2022. Might even have to put him on my fantasy board. But all of this is a perfect recipe that spells playoffs, and Las Vegas currently has us favorited at third to win the entire thing. Wilson expressed interest at one point in coming to Denver, and I suppose his wish was finally answered. And so was mine. Everyone kept up with the narrative that we were a quarterback away from contending, and that is true. All that matters now is clueing Wilson in and winning games. I hope Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the AFC West are shaking in their boots right now because the old reign of terror might finally be back. The keyword here is “might”. I’m not sure who is stopping the rest of the division from making the playoffs next year. At this point, the Buffalo Bills and maybe the Cinncinasty Bengals are the only teams outside of the clubhouse who stand a chance. I honestly don’t know what to expect after another let-down of a season. Let’s hope Russ can cook up something magical.

The Seattle Seahawks

Poor Seattle. It’s plain and simple. Ever since you know what in 2014, that team has never been the same. Their mighty defense fell apart, and Russ left the kitchen. Pete Caroll looked more focused on the retirement home and chewing his gum like a horse rather than delivering that city to another Super Bowl. I often wonder how much money that man owns to Bose for destroying their headphones every game. Pitiful. Ownership there is horrible, and the Seahawks have made more and more questionable decisions in recent years. They paid that safety from New York too much and pretty much threw away their future that could potentially help the team, nonetheless Mr. Wilson. Their cap space has gone to shit, and they have been leaning on the edge of rebuild purgatory for quite some time. Today, they finally made that extra step by trading their franchise man and letting go of their best linebacker. Now, they have a somewhat improving Drew Lock who will only serve as a bridge to whatever Seattle decides to do next at quarterback. It pains me to say, but Lock isn’t long-term. He just isn’t. As for everything else, Noah Fant is arguably a top 15 tight end and has a solid connection with Lock. It could lead to some opportunities. He’s a rising star, along with Shelby Harris, who I will miss dearly. Too bad his skills at blocking field goals couldn’t stop us from beating teams like the Chiefs. Treat him well- he’s a stud. As for draft picks, you guys have so much room to do whatever you want with those. I swear to god, if you waste your future on them, I hope Russell Wilson wins the Super Bowl with the Broncos every year until the day he retires. We might be in your guys’ current situation when he leaves. Luckily he’s only 33 and still has time to revive his career, but that’s your fault for wasting his prime. Remember that. Either way, it was a smart trade for both teams, one in a win-now situation, the other on the brink of collapse.

In Conclusion

This whole situation is interesting to me, as I never expected this to play out as it did. I was fully convinced that the Broncos would be drafting another lab rat or picking up some bum off free agency. I haven’t felt this excited about a season since Peyton Manning came to Denver, and now I fully have faith in this football team once again. This is our time to shine, and I hope we can make the most of what we have here because it might be a while. Let’s put it this way- it’s about damn time winning football returned to the Mile High City.

With all the pieces on the board, I’m going to make some predictions. Realistically, the Broncos won’t make the Super Bowl next year, but I think they’ll get close. The divisional round is our ceiling due to the fact that this is an entirely new team we’re talking about here. But I don’t want to speak too soon. If Matthew Stafford, who suffered for 13 long years in Detroit, can win a Super Bowl with the Rams in his first season, why can’t Russ do the same? Who knows? Until then, a divisional-round exit with an 11-6 or 12-5 record is my final prediction. We’ll probably lose to somebody stupid, like one of our divisional rivals or Josh Allen.

I still have the Chiefs winning the division, just because they are the most well-organized team in the NFL. I do firmly believe that the Broncos will beat them once, but not twice. But do I have them winning the Super Bowl? No. They won’t be back for another few years if their competition has gotten significantly better. The Buffalo Bills are coming for the Lombardi, and I truly believe that next year is their revenge tour. Too bad that I have the 49ers losing yet another Super Bowl so they can make up for what happened in the 90s. At least this way, everyone is happy. I would watch out for the LA teams and the Ravens. I think they’ll be pretty dangerous next year. Until then, I am putting the most expectations on my favorite team to succeed than I ever have before, and I just hope we don’t waste our opportunity. It’s not every day you see something good happen to the Denver Broncos.