McAfee: Russell Wilson's Weight Loss 'Good News for Broncos Fans'
When the slimmed-down version of Russell Wilson was asked about his obvious weight loss, the Denver Broncos veteran quarterback was all business with his short reply.
“I feel great. I feel lean and mean, ready to go and focused," Wilson said on Thursday following OTA practice.
Wilson is notorious for the extreme lengths he will go to in order to keep his body and mind in optimum condition to play the game he loves. Broncos head coach Sean Payton has cleared out Wilson's traveling caravan of private coaches like he was swotting flies away, but it's fairly obvious they were still getting physical results while the QB was away from team facilities.
Wilson reshaping his body is aimed to get him ready for the rigors of a new campaign, but the superstar signal-caller isn’t counting the pounds as such.
"I’m not worried about that," Wilson said. "I’m not counting… but all I know is I’m excited to play again.”
We can take that remark with a grain of salt because Wilson is driven by details and gaining tangible results. Such a serious approach to his profession has often been the butt of jokes from sections of the media who thoroughly enjoy picking the low-hanging fruit for some cheap one-liners.
One hugely popular show, which has come to specialize in the bar-room conversation angle of the NFL, is the Pat McAfee Show. During his Friday podcast, McAfee made several tongue-in-cheek comments about the leaner version of Wilson, but some of his observations were also particularly astute.
“Didn’t give an exact update on how much weight he’s lost or anything like that, but it’s very apparent that this particular Russell Wilson is different than last year’s Russell Wilson . Now, was Russell Wilson bulking up last year for a reason? Did he think that it would make him a more durable player, a better player? Or did he potentially just not worry about it all as much with everything else going on his life? This year, obviously [it's] a focal point, and, I think it’s good news for Denver Broncos fans.”
Wilson's appetite to retrieve the luster he lost shouldn't surprise anyone who has followed his career over the last decade. Even when he first entered the league, he had to prove everyone how wrong they were about his height and overall skill set, so he's no stranger to knuckling down to make the doubters eat their words
Losing some extra weight might also provide a strong indication that Payton plans to fully embrace the mobility that Wilson has traditionally used to great effect. Bafflingly, Nathaniel Hackett locked much of Wilson’s core strengths up in an offense that would have been far better suited to possibly Aaron Rodgers.
Furthermore, it's a positive outlier that several of the injury problems which dogged Wilson last season could be firmly behind him, meaning he can more proactively attack the offseason and whip his body into the premium shape of yesteryear.
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