Ripping Russell: Why's Coach Blaming Seahawks Ex Wilson?

Seahawks ex “Russell Wilson has to be sharper …” And so the Sean Payton finger-pointing begins for the winless Broncos.

When Sean Payton took the 2023 Denver Broncos head coaching job, he did so while both ripping predecessor Nathaniel Hackett and scolding QB Russell Wilson.

But in Week 2, the Broncos lost a massive lead at home against Washington on Sunday, and lost the game, 35-33.

So … now whose fault is it that Payton’s Broncos are off to an 0-2 start, worse than Hackett’s 2-1 start a year ago.

“We give them the ball at midfield, and that momentum shifts at that point with the fumble,” said Payton of a first-half miscue by Wilson.

OK, coach, please go on …

“There were a number of drives where we were late with personnel, getting out of the huddle we took a while. That has to change,” Payton said, via Mile High Huddle. We had to burn timeouts in the first half, and I’m not used to doing that. We have to be better. I have to be better. Russ has to be sharper with getting the play out …”

So, it’s kinda Russell’s fault? Wilson is an easy punching bag for a lot of reasons, many of them stemming from his forced-exit trade out of Seattle a year.

But Payton essentially pledged that none of this would happen when he called Hackett’s work “one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”

Coincidentally, that’s how bad this is, too. Wilson actually threw for 308 yards and three TDs (and was the top rusher, too) making him and his supposed inability to run a huddle - a ridiculous accusation - a weird Payton scapegoat.

“If we need to wristband it (with play-calls), we will,” said the Teflon coach, who apparently needed until Week 3 to figure that out?