The Ringer NFL Show - The Broncos Should Get Rid of Russell Wilson | The Island

Episode Date: November 30, 2022

Welcome to ‘The Island’! Each week a guest tries to persuade Nora Princiotti to agree with an argument they feel strongly about. This week’s guest is The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz, who argues that the Denver Broncos should get rid of their quarterback. Will Nora join him on the island, or sail elsewhere? Host: Nora Princiotti Guest: Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The time has come to get ready for the 2022 World Cup. And what better way to prepare than by revisiting the World Cup's most amazing goals? I'm Brian Phillips. I'm making a podcast about the history of the men's World Cup, told through the stories of 22 iconic goals. The show's called 22 Goals. It's out now on the Ringer Podcast Network, and we're having so much fun. Like all of, we're laughing about this, but these are like real solutions that are better for the future of this franchise than just paying the dude.

I honestly believe that. Like, frame him for a crime. We at the Ringer NFL show do not condone framing Russell Wilson for any crimes. Oh, yeah, that much, that must be stated. Wank, wink, wink. The island on the Fringer NFL show feed. I'm Nora Hintziotti. I am here today with the one and only Stephen Ruiz. The leader in the clubhouse of Island takes, Stephen, welcome back to the show. Trevor Lawrence looks like a top 10 quarterback, doesn't he? You know what?

That one is the most, I feel like that island has had the most, like, rocky weather patterns this season. There's been some times when that take has looked not so great, but then also some real, all right, that Stephen worries might know what he's talking about. Yeah. Do you wish that you'd meet at Gino Smith Island? Oh, man, yeah. Because I feel like I was on that island all off season. So I really missed the boat there. That's another island pun.

Miss the boat. I did that on that. Well, well, this is actually kind of an island first. Because I don't completely know what your island is. Usually I know what the argument is going to be, not necessarily how the guest is going to make it. But I know the topic because it helps with prep and everything.

I know that you have some thoughts about the Broncos and Russell Wilson, but I don't know all that much more than that. So, Stephen, lay it on us. Tell us your island's take for the day. So I spent a lot of time on spot track looking at Russell Wilson's contract, trying to find a way out because that's where we are at this point. Like, it's not working. It's been a disaster.

The coach has been bad. The quarterback has been bad. The offense has been bad. They're losing games. games, we got to find a way out. And the only conclusion I came to was that the Broncos should just fold the franchise. That's obviously not a

real option. So the next option is let's get rid of Russell Wilson. So I looked into how they would go about doing that and what dead cap money they would be left with. It turns out it would be a lot of dead cat money. It'd be like $100 million of dead cap if they just straight up cut them.

Cut them like regularly. Here's the thing. The NFL record for Goff and Wentz currently in the in the 30 million range. Smashed. And I think Russell Wilson would go for it. He's a guy that likes to accomplish things.

This would be quite the accomplishment. A record that would never be broken. But that's not realistic. But there are other options. You don't have to just cut him. You could trade him for instance. And if you can trade Russell Wilson, if you can convince another team to trade for Russell Wilson,

they would have to take on a contract that includes $100 million in guarantees. For the new team, not for the Broncos. The Broncos would be, stuck paying, I think it was like around $60 million for their one year with Russell Wilson, which is a bad amount of money. But if you're the Broncos,

why not? Why not? That's my take. I am Stephen Ruiz and I am on. The Broncos should either cut or trade Russell Wilson and eat the dead money this offseason. Ended after one year. I'm on that island.

Jeez. That is dangerous. I've done something like that too. Cutting Russell Wilson. Let's just, let's do some. of numbers here. Cutting Russell after this season would leave the

Broncos with a dead cab hit of $124 million. Roughly half the salary cap. So that seems tough, is what I would say. Let's talk about the trade situation. Do you think

there is a team in the NFL that could be convinced to trade for Russell Wilson for essentially to take the, to take the salary off their hands, trade him for like a seventh round pick or something. I think it's easy to pitch that. If you are the Broncos, you could pitch that, hey, we've made a mistake hiring this guy. This coach that we hired one of the worst coaches in NFL history. And he is the reason why Russell Wilson didn't play well. Russell Wilson has this long track record of playing well.

He's been a star quarterback for over a decade. He had one down year. There were some injuries mixed into. We had some injuries to the offensive line also. We had some injuries to the receiving core. Our running back got hurt. There are like a lot of excuses explaining away his bad play, and it's only one year. And then I would also reference Carson Wentz, who has been traded in two off seasons

a row for premium draft picks. So if you can trade Carson Wentz for premium draft picks, I don't see why you can't offload Russell Wilson on some poor team and be like, hey, we'll even throw in a second round pick or a third round pick for you to take this guy off our hands. Now, here's the key part. They have to do it before March because he has a $20, I don't know if it's an option bonus, roster bonus, or whatever,

but that becomes guaranteed in March. So unless they do it before then, then the trade doesn't really work out financially for them, then they end up losing a bunch of money still. but if they can get that trade done before March, I really don't see the argument against it because the alternative is that Russell Wilson continues to play for you

and continues to make around like $40 million a year. And I get that $80 million in dead money is a lot to work around. But working around a quarterback making $40 million for the next five years is even harder to work around, especially if he's a bad quarterback, which we're going to get into this later, but I think he might be a bad quarterback now.

Well, let's get into it now, right? Because, and now, look, if the Broncos can make a compelling case to a team to convince them that Russ is going to rebound and start playing better immediately and convince them to make a trade, then great, well done. That doesn't have to be true in order to do that. But let's talk through that argument, right? Like, is there a way to salvage this quarterback? What do you think?

I've gone back and forth on this. Like, when I first came into this, I'm writing about Russell Wilson. this week. And when I first came into it, my thought was they should keep Russell Wilson, get a coach who understands how he plays, get a coach from, maybe from that Seattle era, maybe Brian Schottenheimer, for instance, who knows how to call the right plays and turn the right dials for Russell Wilson because he is a unique quarterback who takes a play caller who has a unique understanding of his game. And I don't think Nathaniel Hackett has that. Yeah. But then when I dove into the numbers and like I started to like parse out the things that

Russell Wilson used to do well and isn't doing well anymore. That's when the concerns come because it's not like he fell off a cliff all of a sudden. This has been a gradual decline. And I'm talking about like off target throw rate on deeper throws, escaping pressure and avoiding sacks when under pressure, throwing outside of the pocket. All of these things, they've been, it's been a gradual decline since 2018. It hasn't been like, oh, he was good for 2018. He was good in 2019.

He was good in 2020. And then all of a sudden he's bad. No, it was like, it was a little worse in 2019. Little worse in 2020, a little worse this year. To me, that suggests that this isn't a quarterback who's just having a bad year. This is a quarterback who's clearly on decline. And then when you think about his skill set and how he's been good, it makes sense that a quarterback at 34 years old with that playing style,

with that body type, would start to break down at this point in his career. What do you think the top thing that's gone by the wayside has been? Because, yes, we can look at the last few years of Russ's, play and go, okay, this didn't totally come out of nowhere, particularly when we talk about some of the mobility issues. But his last two seasons in Seattle, in 2021, there was also the finger injury which impacted things. But in the last two seasons before this one, he was eighth in QBR that's just in front of Dak and Kyler Murray. It's not like he was a horrible quarterback. Right. It's not like he was this quarterback that we're watching. So there are, through

lines, but we are looking at a different situation. So where do you think, where do you think the through lines in how he'd been starting to drop off before getting to Denver that have been really extra present this season in his game are? I honestly think it's the scramble stuff and the under pressure stuff because like that was his thing. He did other things well. Like he did like quick game well. He threw a really good deep ball.

But we see, we know there's other quarterbacks. in the league that do that. His unique skill set was being able to turn any situation into a explosive play. That took mobility and it took exceptional arm strength and arm talent. The ability to run and throw on the run and not lose any accuracy or touch or arm strength is wholly unique to Russell Wilson in that regard. It's not there anymore. It's not like it's gone completely by the wayside, but it's like 5% worse than what it was. a year ago and 10% worse than what it was two years ago. And like, I feel like there's a threshold where once he sinks below it,

everything else kind of falls apart. And I think that's what we're seeing. And I think what Pete Carroll did, even though he was getting so much criticism for his play calling, his philosophy on running past ratios, was he minimized the plays that Russell wasn't really good at and maximized the plays that he was good at. and we're not getting that in Denver right now.

And they are struggling to find the mix. And I think part of that is a misunderstanding on Russell Wilson's end on what type of quarterback he is. I don't think Russell Wilson realizes why he was good. And you can hear him when he talks about quarterbacks he looked up to and who he modeled his game after. I mean, he's saying Drew Breeze. And I can't think of a quarterback that's less like Russell Wilson

than Drew Breeze outside of the fact that they're both five. 10. They don't play the position the same way. And if that's what he used himself as, and that's the type of offense he wants to be in, you're going to get results that look like the result you're seen in Denver right now because he's just not good at that stuff. And then he's not as good as he was at the other stuff that made up for it in Seattle any longer. I think you're sort of hitting at the central question of whether there's a way to salvage this, right? Which is if Russell Wilson is not, he's never, he has, he has, He's not an elite athlete in the way that we talk about, you know, a Lamar, a Justin Fields.

But Russell Wilson was an exceptional athlete and exceptionally mobile quarterback who could do special things with that element of his game. If that is gone, is there a way for him to still be an effective quarterback? Because in 2020, he scrambled for 28 yards per game. Last year, that was down to 11.5 yards per game. This season, it's around the same, 12 and a half. He's actually doing that on fewer attempts. So he's been an OK scrambler sometimes when he's gone for it.

It's just not a big part of their offense. And then the other thing is that when he throws on the move, he's far, far, far less effective than he used to be. And that's the part that since 2020 has kind of cratered. He's gone from 11th and EPA per play when throwing on the run all the way down to 24th the season. He was 27th last season. So that's one of those things that gives you some pause because it's not totally out of the blue.

again, part of that 2021 season was the finger issue, which is hard to sort of separate out. But it's interesting that you brought up sort of who he idolizes because the other part of that is that I think the league in general and defenses in general are also better at defending that type of quarterback. And when we look at Russell Wilson's career, like he's this one of these hyper successful 2010s quarterbacks. who were the other guys who were thriving at that same time, they were guys who had really, really, really different skill sets. And not only has that special skill set that Russell Wilson has gotten worse just with age and he's just not playing as well, also the league deals with more guys who play like Russell Wilson did when he was at his best and is therefore better at defending those types of

quarterback. So Russell Wilson used to get to play these defenses that were like, man, if I want to be a Super Bowl caliber defense, I'm going to have to be able to beat Brady, Rogers, Phil Rivers. And then all of a sudden Russell Wilson would be this total change. That to me is an underrated element of what's going on. It's like he doesn't really have that anymore because, one, he doesn't have the ability physically, but also the guys that he's playing against know how to deal with that style when he does do. it. Bill Barnwell wrote a piece about what's gone on with that offense. And one thing that I thought was super interesting that he pointed out was that Russ has stayed about league average throwing out of structure over the last three years. But league average has gotten worse. So in 2020,

he was 15th and that was good for negative. 0.1 EPA per play. He's only 16th this season. But being right there equals out to negative 0.3 EPA per play. So if that's your bread and butter, that in and of itself is just a less successful thing to do, at least unless you can be an elite guy playing that style. And he doesn't have the physical tools to do that anymore. Now, I want to talk about some of the other stuff, like you mentioned, the deep ball, which I actually don't think has been horrible, to see if there are other, elements, like if there is a different path for him, but I just like that you pointed out sort of

who he models himself after, because I think there's this sort of perfect storm of Russ isn't able to do what he used to be able to do anymore, but also he thinks of himself in this different way, but also the league has molded to be better equipped to deal with what made him special. And just all of these things are sort of coalesming. messing around, man, this might be a tough guy to build a franchise around in 2022. But you mentioned the deep ball. What do you think is the state of Russell Wilson's deep ball? Because I would argue that's actually one of the causes for some degree of optimism this season.

No, it's the only thing he's got going for him right now. But that's the problem is it's the only thing he's got going for him. We talked like so much earlier in the year and last year about how about the Bengals and their reliance on explosive plays and how they had to find a plan B. They've done that. Russell Wilson has not done that. Russell Wilson, that is still the thing he's best at. And when you're watching on film, it's just as good.

It's not quite as good, but it's like 95% there. And I do think that 5% makes a big difference because it's hard enough as it is to build an offense around deep balls just because it's so volatile. But when you're Russell Wilson in his prime and you were the best deep ball thrower, maybe in the history of the NFL, specifically at the type of deep ball he threw, which made it really easy to track for the receivers, it matters when you start to lose that unique ability

that separates you from the rest of the pack, because that's what you had on them. And then you have other areas where you're weaker than the other top quarterbacks. And I would also say that I think this is so fascinating, this breakdown of his career just because of the play-calling element of it. I think that's really another big key.

It's not just that Russ has fallen off. It's not just that Nathaniel Hackett isn't a great coach. I think that this should make us all look back on his time in Seattle with a different lens and maybe appreciate what Pete Carroll did for this guy's career because the funny thing is when you watch him on film, like, yes, he's slower and he's not his mobile. But like I said, the deep ball still looks the same. Like the accuracy on all the other throws looks the same. He's arguably better at being.

more poised in the pocket and dealing with pressure. Like, there's an argument that can be made that he's a better pure quarterback now. It's just not a better football player. And I think that makes me appreciate what Pete Carroll did in calling the offense, setting, or not calling the offense, but setting the offense up to be this run-first outfit

that while it was run first and run-friendly, it was maximizing the efficiency of the passing game. Like, Russ only did the things he was good at. He did quick. game and he did play action deep balls and he was really good at both of those things and that's why the offense worked they didn't waste their time trying to have them run these drop back passing concepts in obvious passing situations because he can't do it he's not that type of quarterback you can't hang in the pocket you can't see over the middle of the field it's hard to run those pure drop back

passing concepts so p. Carroll found a way around that and his offensive coordinator's found a way around that and really turn the sliders in the right directions and turn the knobs in the right directions and made it work. And when you break down Denver's play calling and how how they're using certain play types, it's really obvious why the offense isn't working as well as it did, even when it wasn't going well in Seattle. They're not calling a lot of play action from shotgun. And that was a big thing for Seattle and Russ. And I think the reason why they aren't is because they can't run the football in shotgun. And it's like hilariously bad

how awful they are at it. Like their best formation is when they go into 11 personnel, go into the gun, and go two by two. So two receivers on one side, two receivers on the other side. That's their best passing formation by stats.

But their success rate when they run out of that format, it's also their most common formation. Their success rate when they run out of that is 6%. like the league average for success rate is 50 on things. 60. I've never seen.

I've done a lot of like, I've written a lot of articles and I've been on SIS and true media and all. You've been around. I've never seen a success rate that low for a sample that big. 6%. I can't even do the mat. Like it's like, what is that one out of every 20 runs works?

And that's why this offense is so broken because they can only run under center, but Russ can't pass from under center. They can only pass from shotgun, but they can't run. from shotgun, you try to make an offense out of that. So can I make the argument that this is all Nathaniel Hackett's fault? Yes. Because wouldn't that be nice for the Broncos, right?

If you can just fire your coach and then all of a sudden, poof, okay, maybe he's not a pro-ball caliber quarterback, but things get noticeably better. And if I were to make that argument, I'm glad you brought up the play action. And yes, they're terrible running in some of those situations, which I'm sure is making them do it less. I don't care. They should start running it a little bit more. So in 2020 and 2021, Schottnheimer and Shane Waldron, Seattle, they used play action with rest 26% of the time.

Probably some of that would have been even more if he hadn't had the finger issue because there was that chunk of... Right, there was a chunk of time when he couldn't go under center and it changed what they were able to call and blah, blah, blah, blah. They're calling play action 20% of the time this year.

too low. Every quarterback in football looks better with play action. Just do it a little bit more. Just give him a little bit more. Another thing is they've diminished how often he's rolling out,

which he's doing on around 8% of dropbacks this season, the last two years that have been more in the 12% range. And that's been one of their more effective looks this year. Sometimes they haven't been able to make the most of it. There was a should have been

touchdown against the Panthers where Russell rolls out to the right. I think three guys get wide open in the end zone. And then he throws to, I think, Cortland Sutton and it goes incomplete. It doesn't work because it just was a weird throw. But there were like three other receivers who were wide open. You should be able to make something out of that play. Right. So dial up a little bit more of the rollout style up, a little bit more of the play action. I think both of those things should be really, really simple and just haven't happened. Loathe as I am to anoint Clint Kubiak is the savior of all things. In week 11, when he took over play calling, it was a little bit better.

I don't know. I don't know what to say about that, but it doesn't seem great for Nathaniel Hackett. And then here's the real thing. And this is the most confounding thing about. this entire situation, and it's so weird that it almost makes me feel like there must be some way to change this, because how could it possibly just be this bad? Is that this combination of Nathaniel Hackett, for whom probably the best thing on his resume, was that he designed the Packers Red Zone offense for the last three years.

He doesn't have much on the resume that merited him getting this job other than being friends with Aaron Rogers. but if you had to come up with something, that's it. In 2020, that Packers' Red Zone offense was like one of the most spectacular things in football, and Nathaniel Hackett was behind that, and that was his job. He wasn't the play caller, but that was a thing that he had his name on that looked like, okay, this guy can really do some stuff. Russell Wilson has historically been among the best Red Zone quarterbacks in football. Here is, you mentioned the 6% success rate.

Here's my favorite step about the current state of the Broncos. Russ's QBR in the red zone from last year to this year, dropped from 91.9 to 6.3. That number keeps showing up. By the way, he has six more years on its contract after this. It's a curse. 6.3. How did it get this bad?

How did the marriage between this guy who the best thing that you could say about him was that he designed a really, really good red zone offense and one of the best red zone quarterbacks of the last decade become like the worst thing. It becomes so bad that the league is flexing Patrick Mahomes out of primetime so we don't have to watch it. Like this can't possibly be the only. only outcome that they could get from this. Like, I just refuse to believe that it makes sense for this to be this bad.

It can't be. It just, it makes no sense. That's why my theory is that, like, there's too many factors to blame it on any one thing. And they should just absolve themselves of this problem. This would be like, we screw this up so bad. Like, every possible decision we made, we picked the wrong decision. And the only way to get out of this is just to wash our hands. By either folding the franchise, which again is not an option,

unfortunately, or just getting rid of Russell Wilson. Just take it on the chin for a year. I'm not sure with the state of their draft picks. I know they lost their first round pick to Seattle last year. I know they don't have their first round pick next year. But the year after that, why don't we just plan for that year? Tank, clear out the cap, get the cap in a healthy spot. Caleb Williams is coming out.

He looks like a generational prospect. Just work towards that because the saddest this is going to get. They should be really happy they got flux out of prime time because this isn't really going to get super sad until we see this outfit go up against the Chiefs because that was the whole thing with the Russell Wilson trade, right? We need a quarterback that can compete with Patrick Mahomes. I can compete with the Chiefs.

And if this is your national showcase for your attempt at getting a quarterback who can compete with Patrick Malone's, it's not going to look pretty on primetime against the Chiefs. So I think, I mean, the experiment has already failed, right? Like, even if they can salvage this, there is no way the ceiling is what the chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are at right now. So at best, and we're not even talking about Justin Herbert, but at best, you're playing for second place in this division for the next five years while paying a quarterback who maybe can get back to top 10 level, $40 million a year. It just seems like a losing business model. There is no way to work.

Yeah, but if that's within the realm of possibility, and I'm not sure it is, right? I'm not sure. There's some historical precedent for a quarterback in his 30s, having a real dip and then rebounding, like Philip Rivers with the Colts, I think would be sort of the prime recent example. Russell Wilson being a top 10 quarterback, I'm not sure that's something that we ever see again.

If we expand it to like top 15, there's a part of me that feels like if they get hack it out of there, change the offense so that it fits what he's able to do a little bit better. use a little bit more play action, use a little bit more of the rollouts. Another thing that we haven't talked about, maybe some of the red zone stuff

regresses in a positive way somewhat. Obviously, that is an area of the field that has a huge impact on winning. So that could help. Another thing is that they've been dead last in the league in scripted plays, if you call those the first 15 of each half. Another sign that Hackett,

although now he's given up the play-calling part of it. So we'll see how much or if that changes going forward, but they've been really, really, really bad on the script, which is another thing to indicate that the coaching certainly has quite a bit to do with it. Change all of that stuff. Maybe with good players around him, this is a league average offense. Probably the easiest way for them to keep Evereaux is to offer him a head coaching job. You get someone who's a good offensive coordinator who has experience, who's worked with quarterbacks

in the building and have a chance at a wild card a couple years. And realistically, I'm not sure that you're going to do any better than that with X tens of million dollars

being paid out to play Russell Wilson to not play or to play for someone else every year. It's just so crippling. I'm having a hard time seeing that as their best bet. The best possible thing for the Broncos would be to convince him to retire.

Right? Like, what is the equivalent of like running the Parks Division for Walmart? Because if I were the Broncos owners, I might be trying to come up with like, very lucrative, very low work intensive, high sort of

like faux prestige jobs in the company to offer him. What's the Rocky's second base situation? They have a good second baseman are like their AAA affiliate. He could do Walmart commercials.

He could like become the spokesman for Walmart, like the face of it. Because that's the best case scenario, right? is if he retires, now you do have the specter of like Russell Wilson, like this is how Grant got traded to the bucks, right? Is that if he'd unretired and stayed with the Patriots, he would have instantly wrecked their cap situation.

So even though Belichick was pissed, he sort of had no choice, but to be like, okay, yeah, fine, we'll trade you. You do have the specter of Russell Wilson being able to just like unretire and you owe him tons of money all of a sudden. However, if you can just wait it out, like keep him happy in some smushy corporate job for like five years, then you can start to breathe easy, right?

Like, come on, he's not coming back. He's pushing 40 at that point. He's got a nice lifestyle. He lives in this 12 bedroom house with Sierra, like, or 12 bathroom because I think people are charting if he throws, he's got eight touchdown passes this year and his house has 12 bedrooms. We'll see if, we'll see if those two lines on the graph meet by the end of the season. Yeah, I don't know.

I think that's the solution. I mean, that, that, like, all of, we're laughing about this, but these are, like, real solutions that are better for the future of this franchise than just paying the dude. I honestly believe that. Like, frame him for a crime. We at the Ringar NFL show do not condone framing Russell Wilson for any crimes. Oh, yeah, that much, that must be stated.

Wink, wink, no, I'm just kidding. No, don't frame him for a crime. Just simply, what, This is like a realistic thing that could happen, I think. What if they just went to Russ and we're like, this isn't good for either of us. Like your legacy is being tarnished. You're getting yelled at by Mike Purcell,

who no one had ever heard of before this year. Maybe he's yelling about the first 15 not being good. It's just bad and it's bad for us. Like, what if we just like mutually agree to part ways? We'll pay you whatever you. We'll pay you like $50 million. And you can go pick a new team. with a better roster, with a better situation.

Maybe you win. Maybe you get that MVP vote. You've been searching for your whole life. But it's not going to happen here. And I think we both know that this is bad. I don't know like the financial implications of that. I'm not like an agent. But why not like restructure the deal that make it like easy to get out of in a year or two

or give him the freedom to go find his next team if he's willing to give you some financial, some financial break. back. I don't know. Unfortunately, Russell Wilson has around 300 million reasons to not do that. But he's a guy that loves his legacy and loves to be a winner. And like his whole personality seems to be based on... Yeah. I think he also likes his $25 million house.

Yeah. With its 12 bathroom. I think I could convince Russell Wilson. Like me personally. Hire me again. I'll go to Russell Wilson. I'll go. Have you seen the Jets? This is give me one...

Give me one hour in a room with an NFL owner and I can get a million dollars. I would go to Russ. I'd be like, have you seen the Jets? They got a great defense. They got some good skill players. They just need a quarterback who's an adult. That's all they need. They got a good play caller.

They got all that. You can go there. It's New York. You can go there and win. You can go there and win in the same division Tom Brady wanted. You can go in the biggest city in the world and win. This would be so great for your legacy. And he would buy it.

And he would be convinced that he could win. Because that's what that's the mentality. takes to be Russell Wilson and get to the point where he's at. He's been doubted his whole career. They'll tell you that. I think he has... He would be convinced that he could win enough to slash his salary to the point that the Jets could be convinced to make the trade.

Is this your argument? Yes. I don't know. It's hard. I told you it's hard. I haven't slept much because of this. I've been up all night trying to figure things out. The problem is that Russell Wilson has an agent.

I don't necessarily doubt that you could convince Russ. But there would be a lot of people around Russell Wilson being like, no, don't listen to that guy. He's 0 for five on Avatar bets. Can't be doing it. Can't be letting Stephen Ruiz coach. Hey, hey, why do you have to go bring that up? You don't have to go digging up people's past now. Come on.

All right. Here's the deal. These are my rankings for, I think, the things that make the most sense for the Broncos to do. I have to be honest, I don't think, I don't, it's not even that I don't want to be on the island. I want to be on the island. I'm just not sure I can be. I don't think there's a bridge to the island. I think the island is uninhabitable.

As tempting as it may be, as many wonders, as a fully just cut bait and deal with it with Russell Wilson Island might hold. I just don't think that, you know, the waters. are shark-infested around it. I can't swim there. I don't know that there's a path. What I would do, and this is sort of a, this is not fun,

I do think the Broncos' best path forward is to focus entirely on replacing Hackett with someone who, in conjunction with Russ, can make a little bit more

out of this than it's bent. and your goal should be to have a middle of the pack offense. Promote Evereaux. That's probably your best way to hang on to him. Be a team with a good defense. It's not the best way to win in the modern NFL, but you don't have the option to do it the best way anymore. Because this team realistically is going to be seriously weighed down by this contract

into probably until after like 2025. After 2025, they'd still owe him $50 million that they would presumably have to pay him

to play for someone else. But they could cut him then and spread that $50 million charge over two seasons. The highest they'd get would be a $37 million cap charge dead cap charge in 2025. That's reasonable.

Stick with it for those seasons and try to win as a defensive team, try to just have like league average quarterback play. If the red zone stuff rebounded, it would make a really, really big difference. I do think that there's still neat on the bone in terms of what they could get out of a heavier play action game, a little bit more with the rollout stuff.

I do also think that like when you look at, okay, how could the quick game here be better? there's stuff where they could work the flats more instead of the middle of the field stuff, which I think we know enough about Russell Wilson to stop trying to make fetch happen there. He's not going to be a good thrower to the middle of the field. That's just not...

It's not him. It hasn't been him. It's not going to be him. I don't think that there's like an offensive designer in the league that's going to suddenly make that something that's even really all that competent. But I... Given the circumstances that they're facing, I think their best shot

is to try to just salvage enough so that it's okay. And they will essentially be playing with one hand behind their back, but at least it's not two, three, all four limbs tied up and thrown in a corner. The second best option, I think, would be something akin to bribery. Just try to just, I'm sure it happens. I mean, it certainly happens on succession. very, very cushy corporate job,

whatever he wants, doesn't come out of the salary cap, convince him to retire. Make him the CEO of football of Walmart, though. Right. He's the guy that decides what footballs they sell in the toy aisle. It's a big title. It sounds like a big title,

but he doesn't have a lot of responsibility. I think rest would go for that. And that job pays $50 million a year if they want it to. Great. Cool. Because ultimately, that is not that much money

to these people and it is a lot of money on a football team's salary gap. I think, honestly, I don't hate it. I think in other lines of corporate America, this must happen all the time.

Why can't it happen to Russell Wilson? It's like, you know, the show, have you seen the rehearsal on HBO? No, is it good? Yeah, you should watch it. It's a show about, it's almost like a reality show, but basically this guy like offers people who have been avoiding tough conversations.

What he does is he comes in and he recreates the situation that the person would have that tough conversation in and lets them practice. So I think, but that's not what I want the Broncos to do. What I want the Broncos to do is like the set decoration. Like in the show, he like rebuilds the person's house, like piece by piece, an exact replica of it. Now, the Broncos do that. They build this like a Super Bowl stadium.

They hire a bunch of actors to come and pretend like the Super Bowl's happening. They bribe the NFL to give Russell Wilson an MVP. They have him. He wins the Super Bowl and this fake Super Bowl. And then he retires. And then that's the end.

You don't have to deal with it anymore. You have the money to do that. I know how much Walmart makes. That's the solution. I don't know how much Walmart makes. I know that's a lot. I mean, it's a lot of money. It's got to be a lot.

They bought the Broncos. But yeah, that's another viable solution. But really, there is no solution. But I do agree that a defensive coach makes the most sense. Because I think a defensive coach is willing to look at Russell Wilson and see the strengths and see how you could build an offense around that. Whereas an offensive coach who is like beholden to his precious scheme and I want my scheme to be ran a particular way, might look at Russell Wilson and be like, I don't want that guy.

I can't build an offense. around a guy that doesn't run the plays like I design them. And I think that was the value of Pete. Pete recognized what Russell Wilson was and built an offense around it and it worked. And I think the Broncos should really look back and Rush should really look back at his time in Seattle with a different lens and appreciate what they did for him and appreciate how it made him into a better quarterback. And I think that's the only realistic way outside of the trade or making him the CEO of Walmart

or building a fake Super Bowl or framing him for a crime, which is still on the table. table. That's the best way to get the most out of this. I'd like to repeat, we do not endorse the framing of the crime option. Stephen's top option is to just cut bait, deal with the costs later.

Mine is try to make the best out of it. The offense is going to be considerably healthier, you would imagine, which should also make a difference. And yeah, just change your play style, change what type of team, also change some of the expectations. It's probably not a real Super Bowl contender, but

you might be able to squeak into the playoffs, which is at least something. And then our next best options are bribery or framing. Great stuff, Stephen. Glad to have you back on the island. Thanks. That's actually what my whole article is about, is about framing him.

So I might have to rewrite it. That's great. That's great. You know what? We love that you're an outside-the-box thinker. That's why you've been on this program so many times. That's why it's always electric. This has been the Island on the Ringer NFL show feed.

Thank you for listening. Thank you again to Stephen. We will be back next week. But Shiel Capadia, for now, we'll be up next on the feed tomorrow going in-depth on NFL news on The Scramble. Thank you to Stefan Anderson for production on this episode and to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal for additional production supervision.