DENVER — On his best remaining days as a pro quarterback, Russell Wilson will never be as good as Patrick Mahomes, the best on the planet at his craft.
But after losing 15 consecutive games to Kansas City, the Broncos now have a fighting chance against the Chiefs because coach Sean Payton can out-scheme and outsmart Andy Reid on any given NFL Sunday.
This is my list of the top five NFL quarterbacks, and I’m sticking to it:
No. 1: Mahomes
No. 2: Joe Burrow, Cincinnati
No. 3: Josh Allen, Buffalo
No. 4: Lamar Jackson, Baltimore
No 5: Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia
The old school is dead. Tom Brady has finally called it quits, and if he’s smart, Aaron Rodgers will do the same. The young lions are roaring now. Among the five quarterbacks at the top of the heap, with Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence looming at the fringes, there is nobody older than Mahomes, who celebrated his 27th birthday in September.
Entering a season in which Wilson will turn 35 years old, I firmly believe he can and will be a quality NFL quarterback again. But top five at the position? Dream on.
And that is precisely why the Broncos ultimately did the right thing by trading for Payton after general manager George Paton talked New Orleans down from the Saints’ initial demand of two future first-round draft choices. DeMeco Ryans, a 38-year-old former linebacker, wasn’t going to walk into Dove Valley headquarters and immediately command the respect of Wilson with a plan on how to fix a quarterback that has slipped off the path to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Payton coached Drew Brees, whom Wilson deeply admires, for a great run of 15 seasons in New Orleans, where they won a Super Bowl together after San Diego had deemed Brees expendable. At the conclusion of a disappointing 5-12 season, Wilson heaped praise on Payton.
“He’s one of the world’s best, obviously, a guy who has coached a Hall of Fame quarterback in Drew Brees, who was one of my closest friends,” Wilson said Jan. 8. “He’s as competitive as can be, he’s a winner and obviously won a Super Bowl … I was able to be around him at the Pro Bowl and just the wizardry you would have on the field was just magnificent.”
In the ongoing debate about whether the Broncos flushed $245 million down the toilet on a contract extension for Wilson, I really don’t much care whether he has an office at team headquarters or does high knees on the team flight to London. All that matters is Wilson will understand who’s the boss from the first training session when Payton is in charge. The veteran quarterback often seemed to regard Nathaniel Hackett as little more than another yes-man in his entourage.
The Broncos beat Carolina, 24-10, in Super Bowl 50 with a defense that defiantly yanked the Superman cape off Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. But Denver never would’ve gotten to the championship game without the best job of coaching I’ve witnessed during nearly 40 years of covering sports in this dusty old cowtown when Gary Kubiak nursed the bruised ego and body of Peyton Manning to hold together a team that could’ve easily fallen apart.
While quarterbacks rule in the NFL, coaching matters. The top five coaches in the league? Here’s my list:
No. 1: Reid
No. 2: Bill Belichick, New England
No. 3: Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh
No. 4: Payton
No. 5: John Harbaugh, Baltimore
There are Grumpypants among us that will quibble that Payton only won a single Super Bowl in New Orleans. Well, in his 24th NFL season Reid might finally win his second championship.
Unlike Huggy Bear Hackett, who seemed more interested in winning Mr. Congeniality than the AFC West, Payton is from the Bill Parcells school. The Broncos will quickly learn to appreciate that tough love translates to victories in a tough game.
The Chiefs aren’t going anywhere. But the rest of this division is soft, with the Chargers yet to prove they can win big with Herbert as their quarterback.
With better injury luck, a revamped offensive line and smarter moves by Paton in free agency, there’s every reason to believe that 2023 is the year Denver ends its playoff drought.
The Broncos hired a world-class football coach.
With Payton in charge, put me down for an 11-6 record during his first season in Denver.
