We no longer need statistical barriers to describe just how badly Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos’ offense has played this season. If anybody asks, just tell them that Wilson and his new team got Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs flexed out of primetime.
The NFL announced on Tuesday evening that the Week 14 AFC West game between the Broncos and Chiefs, which certainly looked to be a humdinger before the season started and reality set in, has been pushed to the 4:05 EST slot, while the Miami Dolphins and the Los Angeles Chargers will move to the NBC Sunday Night Football slot.
While the reasoning makes sense — a matchup of Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa will move the needle more — this is yet another indignity for a Broncos team that traded the farm for Wilson, only to be rewarded with a donkey kick to the nether regions. The 3-8 Broncos are only relevant in the distance because their defense is so good; their offense is averaging 14.3 points per game, which is the worst for an NFL team since the 2000 Cleveland Browns of Tim Couch, Spergon Wynn, and current Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson at quarterback. That group managed just 10.1 points per game, but nobody was expecting anything from that team.
The Broncos, who were supposed to be just a quarterback away from the Super Bowl, are a different story.
In Denver’s 23-10 loss to the equally dormant Carolina Panthers last Sunday, defensive tackle Mike Purcell went off on Wilson on the sideline, no doubt speaking for an entire defense tired of holding up all the weight.
Denver’s new Walton-Penner ownership group, which recently paid $4.65 billion for the franchise, will no doubt take stock of this and other embarrassments when it’s time to consider head coach Nathaniel Hackett’s future. As for Wilson, the Broncos are stuck with him, due to the five-year, $245 million contract they game him after the trade, and the salary cap hell it created.
