Dalton Risner Calls 'B.S.' on Viral Russell Wilson Rumor
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The rumors are flying around Denver Broncos HQ. One of the latest paints 11th-year Russell Wilson as a quarterback so beleaguered that he's calling old Seattle Seahawks audibles at the line of scrimmage, confounding his offensive linemen.
Or so the rumor goes, which was started by Altitude Sports Radio's Tyler Polumbus, an ex-Broncos offensive tackle who helped the team win Super Bowl 50. Here's what Polumbus said during his Polumbus and Hastings show on 92.5 radio in Denver on Wednesday.
“Russ is losing his mind out there,” Polumbus said. “He’s using audibles from the Seahawks. The guys don’t know the audibles. He’s using codewords that the guys don’t know.”
KOA Radio's Benjamin Allbright seemed to corroborate Polumbus' incendiary revelation.
"There is truth to that," Allbright wrote on Twitter.
However, Broncos' starting left guard Dalton Risner immediately rebutted the rumor with shock and awe when asked by Allbright's broadcasting co-host Ryan Edwards on Thursday.
"I asked LG Dalton Risner in the locker room about the report Russell Wilson has been using Seahawks checks at the line, confusing the Broncos O-Line, he said, 'That’s BS. There hasn’t been a single time he’s made a check at the line that we didn’t know what it was.'”
Risner's repudiation doesn't specifically deny that Wilson uses Seahawks' verbiage for his checks at the line of scrimmage pre-snap, only that if he is using them, the Broncos' O-linemen are trained and apprised on what meaning they hold.
More than anything, these rumors showcase how radioactive Wilson has become — in the sense that it's open season on the regular for shots and aspersions. But when you get paid what Wilson earns, and you not only play terribly yourself, but also preside over the worst scoring offense in the league, it makes you an easy target.
For now, they're kicking Wilson while he's down. So long as the Broncos continue to lose games and Wilson's play continues to take the form of a rookie, the invitation to slam him will remain wide-open.
Only Wilson, and head coach and offensive play-caller Nathaniel Hackett, can silence the noise. Alas, if the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, the rumor mill is likely to keep cranking out choice nuggs, like the one Polumbus breathed into the ether earlier this week.
Next up, the Broncos host the Las Vegas Raiders in an AFC West slug-fest so hotly anticipated that Coach Hackett's best summation was, "Somebody's gotta win this game."
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