Russell Wilsons worst game as Broncos QB renews questions about future

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Russell Wilson looked to his left as soon as the shotgun snap hit his hands. It was fourth-and-3 on the Denver Broncos’ opening drive Thursday night; the ball was at the Kansas City Chiefs’ 38-yard line. Finally defeating Patrick Mahomes, especially at Arrowhead Stadium, was going to require Denver to frequently land big-play punches on offense, and this was a chance to draw first blood.

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“We had a really good drive going, and we thought we could get something on the left side. It was there for a second,” Wilson said.

But Wilson came off the read and moved to his right. The problem: There were no routes designed to follow him along his preferred escape route. Unable to turn a corner on the outside, he was sacked by Justin Reid. Just like that, the Broncos had blown one of their few legitimate scoring opportunities in a 19-8 loss. It was Denver’s 16th straight loss to its superior AFC West rival.

On the second play of Denver’s next drive, after the Broncos defense limited the Chiefs to a field goal, Wilson dropped back to pass and saw Jerry Jeudy up the left seam. Wilson said he saw Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton too and planned to throw the ball over him. But the pass came out flat, and a leaping Bolton picked it off.

“Unacceptable,” Wilson said. “Can’t happen.”

Broncos head coach Sean Payton said he was “disappointed but not discouraged” following the loss. He pointed to a team that played hard on short rest. He noted that an embattled defense turned in its best performance of the season, particularly stingy in the red zone against Mahomes and the Chiefs’ dynamic attack. He said there are things the Broncos can build on before a home game against the Green Bay Packers in 10 days and a rematch with the Chiefs in Denver after that.

“We played an imperfect game,” Payton said, “but I thought we had great effort and energy tonight.”

But this moment for Denver requires a big-picture view. And it’s getting harder to envision Wilson being the one charged with guiding the Broncos through a rebuild that becomes more imminent with every defeat.

The Broncos are 1-5, off to their worst start since the 1994 season. That team, like this one, was quarterbacked by a 34-year-old veteran in John Elway. The fifth loss that season also came against the Chiefs. That Denver team rallied to win six of its final 10 games, though. Two seasons later, it went 13-3. The two seasons after that ended in Elway lifting the Super Bowl trophy — the second championship coming in his age-38 season. A proven offensive mastermind in Mike Shanahan adjusted his offense around his aging quarterback, building one of the league’s most dominant rushing attacks to support Elway.

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But can the story of this current nightmare start continue to run parallel to the one produced by the team two decades ago? The Broncos have lost 16 of the 21 games Wilson has started since he arrived in Denver, the hopes of a proud but downtrodden franchise heaped on his shoulders. We are no longer talking about a small sample. It hasn’t worked. What evidence exists to suggest a major uptick is coming? What signs are there that Wilson, who turns 35 next month, will raise his level as time goes on, pulling a franchise angling toward a rebuild into surprising heights?

“I’ve got to play better,” Wilson said. “That starts with me, and I know I’ll respond the right way.”

Wilson completed 13 of 22 passes for 95 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown, which came with six minutes left in the fourth quarter and Denver trying to dig out of a 16-0 hole. It was the third-lowest yardage output of his career, and there are only six games in which he produced a lower passer rating than the 46.6 he put up Thursday. He was sacked four times, the hits piling up once again after a 2022 season in which he took a career-high 55 sacks in 15 starts.

Even Wilson’s miserable debut season in Denver didn’t have a night quite like this.

“To win in our league, you’ve got to be better throwing the ball,” Payton said.

Not all of what went wrong for the Broncos offensively Thursday was on Wilson. Near the end of the second quarter, with the Broncos facing a third-and-5 near midfield, star Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones zipped past right tackle Mike McGlinchey for a sack. There were only 22 seconds left in the half, but after a short Riley Dixon punt, a special teams penalty, a 13-yard scramble by Mahomes and a 60-yard field goal by Harrison Butker, the Broncos felt the burn of a potential six-point swing.

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The Broncos struggled to create separation on critical third- or fourth-and-short plays. Payton said he has to figure out how to help pass catchers get more free releases in bunch and stack formations, something the Broncos haven’t been able to do consistently the past two weeks — or much at all this season in the second halves of games.

“We’ve got to evaluate everything, see what didn’t work, what did work and see what we need to do to fix it,” said Jeudy, who had just 14 yards on three catches and declined to discuss an apparent pregame spat with NFL Network and former Pro Bowl wide receiver Steve Smith. “We’re disappointed we lost, but we lost by (11) points to a great team. We’ve got to find a way to finish and get better.”

Those finishes continue to be elusive. The Broncos finally scored near the midway point of the fourth quarter when Courtland Sutton made an acrobatic catch for an 11-yard touchdown. Javonte Williams ran in the two-point conversion to cut Denver’s deficit to 16-8. But by the time the Broncos got the ball back, on the short side of the two-minute warning, the Chiefs had added a field goal. A fumble by running back Samaje Perine sealed Denver’s fate, giving it the longest active division losing streak in the NFL.

The trade for Wilson was supposed to bring the Broncos closer. But they seem as far away as ever, off to their worst start in 21 years and barreling toward a top selection in the 2024 NFL Draft. A pick like that would come with critical decisions to be made about the future. After Thursday night, it’s becoming increasingly harder to imagine Wilson being a part of it.

(Top photo of Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton sacking Russell Wilson: William Purnell / USA Today)

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