Broncos Could Learn from Rams' Simple Roll-Out of Baker Mayfield

The Denver Broncos will face Baker Mayfield and the Los Angeles Rams on Christmas Day.

The Denver Broncos will bump into new Los Angeles Rams quarterback Baker Mayfield on Christmas Day in what remains a nationally televised game.

Only yesterday, NFL bigwigs would have flexed the contest out of its 'slime-time' slot, but fate has smiled upon the sponsors. An extremely unlikely head-to-head of quarterbacks will present itself on December 25 over turkey and trimmings.  

Russell Wilson vs. Baker Mayfield offers conclusive proof that the league always provides entertainment and conjures up viewing figures from the thinnest of air.

Given only two days to acclimate, Mayfield is suddenly trending up after orchestrating a memorable Thursday Night Football comeback mission against the Las Vegas Raiders.

It points towards an NFL habit of over-engineering how the games are played at the elite level. More natural and instinctive players like Mayfield can thrive in the spotlight when extricated from less-than-ideal situations.

Perhaps Wilson can find inspiration from Mayfield and the Rams by keeping things simple-stupid. Wilson has been trying to simplify his process all week as he prepares to face Patrick Mahomes — perhaps the finest exponent of backyard ball there is on planet earth.

"The biggest thing is we're just trying to find more touchdowns. That's my focus," Wilson said this week. "It doesn't matter how we get them; it doesn't matter what we do or how we do it. We want to be able to give our team the best chance to win. No matter the score, we got to find one more point than they do. That's the name of the game; it always has been. That's what we have to do."

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All previous attempts to tailor an offense to suit Wilson's skill set have failed miserably, and in time, it will likely cost Broncos' rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett his job. 

Last Sunday's collaborative game plan kept the ball out of the hands of a $245 million, former Super Bowl-winning quarterback — not exactly a work of genius.

Further proof that Hackett has never really had an epiphany moment came again on Thursday. The embattled head coach continues to talk through the complexity of his approach, even if, due to multiple injuries, certain simplifications have been adopted to make allowances for younger players.

"It's a combination. You still want to be dynamic and do different things, but you do have to understand you have to build the foundation," Hackett said on Thursday. "All systems in the NFL are difficult, especially for young football players because they come—college, sometimes, it isn't as complex and [you] don't see as many defenses as you do in the NFL. We try to give them the foundation from the OTAs into training camp, so they had that."

After installing Hackett's playbook in training camp, with the 'co-authored' input of Wilson, we find Klint Kubiak now calling plays. Far too many fingerprints remain on Denver's confused offensive game plans each week.

However, Hackett's insistence on transferring what he did with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay directly to Wilson represents the arguably his biggest failure. The days of Wilson running around and winging it have been left behind in the Pacific Northwest, but certain simplistic elements of his skill set have been criminally underused and mismanaged throughout a failed 2022 campaign.

Continually attempting to ram a square peg into a round hole has cost the Broncos their entire season, their reputation, and possibly even their potential savior at quarterback. The time for a radical rethink has arrived.

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