*among players with at least 100 pass attempts
Russell Wilson has quietly been pretty dang good this season, and Sean Payton has turned this organization around despite inheriting an abysmal team and getting off to a rough first few games.
Nathaniel Hackett might feel like the head-to-head was some vindication, but let’s not forget that the Jets defense scored 9 points that game. Sean Payton may be a jerk for saying what he said about Hackett, but he wasn’t wrong.
Back in my day 68% pass completion was enough to lead the league and by a hefty margin. Times have changed.
I mean it was more fun when we were counting bathrooms but this Broncos team as a whole has been surprising, Wilson included.
r/nfl owes this man an apology.
The slander on here was extreme. Herbert gets all the coaching excuses after every loss, but this guy with a years of pro bowl level play is suddenly trash and Hackett was somehow not a factor?
For real. Crazy how Russ was treated like a bum because he got saddled with Hackett as if he didn’t have a long resume of high level QB play in Seattle. His resume should’ve earned him the benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile with Lawrence, everyone pretends his rookie year doesn’t exist because he got stuck with Urban Meyer as if there’s no history of rookie QBs ever performing well despite being stuck with a bad HC. Then coming into this season he gets labeled a top 5 QB because last year he had half a season of great QB play.
Wild how differently some QBs get treated
I’m not going to talk about the top 5 or top 10 stuff, but anyone would easily prefer to have Lawrence over Wilson. Wilson was over 30 and was on the decline with an awful contract that Denver lost a lot of assets for too. Lawrence had a big playoff win and showed improvement. People also wrote off Lawrence as a bust even halfway through last yr until he figured it out.
The difference in treatment has a lot to do with the fact that one of the players is older and had a massive drop off from his usual play and was trending downward while the other got better and had a playoff comeback win.
Sean Payton a Super Bowl winning coach is better than a coach fired in his rookie season confirmed.
/r/nfl in shambles
I’ve honestly been more impressed with the defensive metamorphosis since the laugher against Miami. Sure, Russell has been improved in this offensive system, but I attribute that to Payton turning him into a check down king. Maybe that’s all he needs to be but I don’t adhere to the narrative of a resurgent Russ when he barely throws for 200 yards, if that, per game.
If anything, he has been markedly more disciplined and prolific in the red zone, which is why the Broncos have started winning games.
The stats show he is still very good and the team start winning. May be a little too late for any hopes in this season as the remaining games are tough.
I had
someoneeveryone tell me I fell off, ooh I needed thatThe weird thing is the stats are good but there’s something really rough/off about watching him play. But he’s been efficient and safe with the ball when passing.
It’s because his WRs aren’t really that good. Jerry Jeudy being so overrated from his college days has continued this effect.
Sometimes it’s vintage Russ and other times its Joe Webb
Last night he had the lowest ADOT of his entire career. Watching the game, I swore every single play was either a run or a checkdown. Payton is lucky the Bills shot themselves in the foot at every turn, because that play-calling was awful.
He checks it down because his WRs aren’t getting open tbf.
He’s been a game manager. An improvement over last year, but still disappointing considering what he’s getting paid. A lot of his touchdowns have come from short fields off turnovers
I said it all offseason, he’s gonna get back to Russ of old this year.
He appears to be checking down a lot finally too and had some big first downs from those yesterday.
That Sutton TD looked like a vintage Russ to Lockett too.
Sutton gets open on broken plays for Russ in a way that reminds me of Doug Baldwin. Just, like, usually for 20 yards instead of 45.
Sigh, Doug Baldin got taken away wayyy too early from Russ…what could have been if it weren’t for the injuries
This is literally what the jets need someone who can compliment the defense russ is just that guy at this point
It’s weird how OP is framing this.
Especially the hackett part, considering Russell Wilson was directly responsible for all of the defensive points the jets scored lol.
Payton was also definitely wrong about the hackett situation in denver… they got to coach 2 different players. Hackett had a Wilson that thought he could play like brady and couldn’t even be coached by pete carroll at that point.
Wilson basically needed to have an awful season like he had last year, to get a reality check about his skillset, so that he could be coachable again.
Payton got to come in with authority… hackett never had any authority over wilson, and ownership had given wilson everything he wanted.
Russ is also quietly reinventing himself as a passer. In Seattle he would never hit a checkdown if a big play was available. So his new brand of football - he’s dinking, he’s dunking. It’s less exciting to watch but he’s slowly getting better at reads. So a lot of kudos for him actually trying to develop.
I think he is starting to realize that the dink and dunk combined with the run game will open up the deeper passes, but it has to be invested in and they have to keep at it.
He’s going to start getting some respect now that his team has had two big wins back to back, but he’s playing like he has been all year. Not the guy he once was in Seattle, nor as good as the counting stats show, but still a pretty solid QB who is far from being the main problem of the Broncos offense.