NFLPA Exec Sounds Off on Russell Wilson Stand-Off in Denver
The Denver Broncos are intensively looking for their quarterback of the future, but the possibility of Russell Wilson returning is still open. The odds seem pretty darn long that Sean Payton will regain belief in Wilson and that the quarterback will be able to trust his coach again.
But stranger things have happened.
When it comes to the Broncos' controversial move to approach Wilson's representatives about tweaking the injury guarantees in his contract during the bye week, the NFLPA's executive director Lloyd Howell re-opened the can of worms.
"I'm not going to get into exactly what happened or didn't happen with Russ, but the PA was involved and we did get to a resolution," Howell said via Denver Sports' Andrew Mason.
The Wilson camp quickly brought the Broncos' request to the attention of his union reps when he realized there it wouldn't be a run-of-the-mill affair. Whether the Broncos' front office overstepped by truly threatening to bench Wilson if he didn't accept remains to be proven, but the QB's level-headed approach to reach out to the players union helped facilitate a short-term resolution. I.E. No contract restructure.
The show went on for weeks without anyone being the wiser about the team's request. Back in January, Broncos GM George Paton shot down notions of threatening Wilson, adamantly claiming he made a "good faith" effort to tweak the QB's contract. When that didn't work, he moved on.
Only when the season had slipped away did the Broncos ultimately bench Wilson. At this stage, perhaps the only route is a mutual parting of the ways, especially if the Broncos draft a rookie quarterback.
While it's true that Wilson might not be the ideal fit for Payton's offense, it would be unfair to suggest that he's completely washed up and without inherent value. He was much improved last year with a 26-to-8 touchdown-to-interception ratio, even if some of the problem areas of his game persisted, like taking unnecessary sacks.
Older quarterbacks traditionally have plenty of attributes that can be adapted to fit different circumstances, so we would be remiss to count Wilson out just yet. On Wednesday, former NFL MVP quarterback Matt Ryan declared that Wilson can still play in the league, but he did acknowledge the great difficulty in repairing the damage done by his benching and the hamfisted way it was handled by the Broncos.
"Russ can still play. In my opinion, there's no doubt about that," Ryan said via the NFL On CBS. "(But) just from the decision that they made towards the end of the season, I think it's a hard relationship to repair between [Wilson and Payton]."
There are scenarios whereby Wilson sticks around in Denver, and they might even gain more traction, but only if things unfold a certain way, especially during the draft. Wilson might realize he needs to get at least one more really good season under his belt before he can look to move on to greener pastures somewhere else.
If the Broncos were to draft, say, J.J. McCarthy with the No. 12 overall pick, they might need a mentor to guide the 21-year-old until he was ready to take command the season after. At 35 years old, Wilson's calm demeanor could be ideal for such a role, and at the same time, he could prove to other teams that he has more to offer.
One month removed from Denver's last front-office presser, the notion asserted by Payton and Paton that the Broncos would be quick to decide on the Wilson situation has been laughably proven false. We're about six weeks away from the new league year opening up, so hurry up and wait, Broncos Country.
Follow Mile High Huddle on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to Mile High Huddle on YouTube for daily Broncos live-stream podcasts!
