Out in Denver, Sean Payton is quietly still seething following that embarassing 70-20 beatdown against Miami last weekend and it sounds like Russell Wilson’s time there is running out.
Following an offseason where he stood up for Wilson and threw out some ridiculous criticism of the former coaching staff, Payton certainly is eating a bit of crow these days. He just endured the one of the worst losses in NFL history and was just 3 points shy of giving up the record number of points in league history, which was only because Dolphins’ coach Mike McDaniel decided to be merciful.
Still, someone is going to have to take the fall for Denver’s 0-3 start and it looks like Wilson is potentially going to be that person.
After all, Denver gave up plenty of currency, including two first round picks along with three players (TE Noah Fant, QB Drew Lock, and DE Shelby Harris) to consummate that deal.
So far, they have little to nothing to show for it.
Meanwhile, to lose that badly also shows a lack of preparation and a poor game plan by the coaching staff. Prior to joining the Broncos, Payton was largely regarded as one of the more coveted coaches around the league, including a rumored report where he and Tom Brady may have ended up together in Miami.
Instead, he’s left reeling trying to figure out how he’s going to stop the bleeding and start stacking up some wins in the coming weeks.
“Look, this is one of those weeks where you take a butt-whooping like that, you find out a lot about everyone,” Payton said earlier this week. “It’s a tough film to watch. I debated whether we were gonna show it or not, but I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t.”
“We’ve got to sit in here, and today, as it’s unpleasant as it’s going to be, we’ve got to get these things cleaned up. Look, we played a good offense, but we certainly didn’t help ourselves in any way, shape or form in playing them.”
If they don’t, Wilson’s days could be numbered if he doesn’t start to look more like the player the Broncos hoped he would be. In fact, some reports are starting to hint that he could potentially be shipped out of town by midseason if the slide continues for Denver.
It’s hard to imagine how that might play out, especially considering he just signed a 5-year, $242.5 million extension with the club last September.
Needless to say, this should be an interesting two weeks for Denver. They head to Chicago this weekend to face the Bears, followed by a home game against the Jets.
That’s two games where they’ll need to hope they can pull it together. Otherwise, an appearance four days later on Thursday night football on national television against Kansas City could be pretty interesting to watch.
Unfortunately for Payton, after seeing what McDaniel did, Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid may end up making that one just as ugly if his team is still a mess by then.
Editor’s Note: Portions of the above were taken from Wednesday’s Patriots Daily News and Notes column.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
