Strike 1: It’s no secret that Sean Payton was hired as the new head coach of the Denver Broncos in large part because he’s seen as the guy who can fix Russell Wilson. Having won a Super Bowl with a strong armed but under-sized quarterback – Drew Brees – who never quite fit the mold of an NFL signal caller but is still seen as a future Hall of Famer, Payton will try to turn around the one-year slide of another QB with similar traits in Russell Wilson. The embattled Wilson possessed a similar (lack of) height and a trajectory that was headed for Canton, Ohio at this point just one year ago.
There’s every reason to believe that Payton and Wilson will work.
It’s the rest of the roster that’s a question mark now.
The Broncos relinquished the late first round draft pick they got for Bradley Chubb and next year’s second round pick for the services of the most proven head coach available (Denver also got New Orleans third round pick next year.) It wasn’t a steep price to pay, and it was definitely a move made with long-term thinking in mind. Wilson has six more years on his contract, and the hope is obviously for Denver to be a Super Bowl contender within that window.
But what about 2023? What about tossing something out to a fan base that’s starved for more immediate success?
That’s where Wilson could potentially help Payton fix things.
Given their lack of picks, the Broncos aren’t going to improve their roster all that much in the upcoming NFL Draft. But with the wealthiest ownership group in the NFL, they could potentially be a big player in free agency – if they make some important roster moves beforehand.
At the moment, Denver is not in great shape cap-wise for next season. Projections have them working with between $10-$13 million. That’s not enough to really improve the roster. But if they let go of offensive lineman Graham Glasgow, for example, they could save another $11 million. And running back Chase Edmonds – a part timer – could be let go for a savings of another $6 million. Moves like these would help, just not enough.
While Payton is in this for the long haul, he’ll want to make significant improvements before next season and be able to compete right away. In order to do that, the Broncos need a lot more room under the cap. Waiving a couple players will help, but so would restructuring some existing contracts.
That should start with Wilson, scheduled to make $22 million next year. According to Spotrac, that’s about 9.3% of the team’s 2023 payroll. And his yearly salary goes even higher in the years that follow.
While Team Russ certainly isn’t going to accept any sort of pay cut for the six seasons (including what remains of the deal Denver inherited from Seattle) remaining on the 34-year-old’s deal, he could do what others like John Elway and Tom Brady have done in the past in order to help their team’s immediate cash flow issues.
Russ could defer some of the mind boggling money owed him over the few seasons. He could restructure his Broncos contract so that the dollar amount at the end comes out the same (or maybe even more) but the yearly salary due him is reduced, and gets spread out over future years, even after he’s retired. That would make each year’s cap hit hurt a lot less.
Think about it. If he wanted to, Wilson could defer enough salary to pay for a couple new and better offensive lineman. That should be worth it.
Strike 2: Nikola Jokic has been in the NBA for seven and a half seasons now, and he’s still never suited up next to another All-Star.
Name another NBA standout/two-time MVP who you can say that about. Heck, wherever the well-traveled LeBron James has landed he’s made certain he had another All-Star or two on the roster already.
Despite the fact that the Denver Nuggets have the best record in the NBA’s Western Conference, Joker is once again the only Denver player selected to play in this season’s NBA All-Star game and its new “pick up game at the rec center” format. Head coach Michael Malone will coach one of the teams because his team is in first place. There was no way he could get snubbed under the rules, or he probably would have been.
Aaron Gordon, who has been tremendous for the Nuggets all season and deserves a roster spot, will be staying home.
The Nuggets got screwed over. Again. They should be used to it. It’s been more than a dozen years since the Nuggets had more than one All-Star selection, and they went seven seasons between 2011 – 2018 without a single All-Star. (Okay, to be fair, most – but not all – of those omissions were defensible.)
This year, the omission of Gordon is not.
Granted, with only 14 reserve spots available (seven from each conference) after the starters are voted in, the competition is tough. This year the reserves from the West include Memphis standout Ja Morant, Damian Lillard from Portland and the Clippers’ Paul George, Each of those guys is a legit All-Star. So is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from Oklahoma City. But some of the others are questionable.
Jaren Jackson of Memphis was chosen. How does the second best team in the West get two players in the game? Lauri Markkanen of Utah and Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento are All-Stars ahead of Gordon. None should have been, but at least those three have a case to me made.
Someone who does not have a case to be made is New Orleans forward Zion Williamson, who hasn’t played since January 2nd with a hamstring strain and has watched in street clothes while his team has gone 1-9 in their last 10 games to fall out of a nice playoff seeding. Zion has inexplicably chosen as a starter when he has no business even being on a roster. He’s missed almost half of this team’s games this season. Shouldn’t that matter? Shouldn’t the league step in and correct this grievous error by the fans who voted? Shouldn’t there be some sort of rule around a minimum number of games played to qualify to be an All-Star?
Think about it. One of the things that makes Joker so special is his durability. One of his (many) best abilities is availability.
It’s just the opposite for Zion. It’s his worst thing, and it should count against him in this kind of selection process.
But it doesn’t. While Zion sits out, his team is in freefall. Still, he’ll undoubtedly make an amazing recovery just in time to play in the All-Star game, taking a spot from a far more deserving player in Gordon, who has done everything for his first place team this season.
The NBA’s selection process is almost as screwed up as its All-Star game format.
Strike 3: Which sports entity around here doesn’t get enough attention?
Very quickly we can eliminate the Broncos. While we’ve graduated from the “never an offseason for talking Broncos” mindset that plagued our sports scene for the five years between Super Bowl 50 and the pandemic, this is still a Broncos-first town and market and always will be. The Broncos still get more attention than any team with seven straight lousy seasons really deserves.
The Colorado Avalanche – winners of the last Stanley Cup, and the Nuggets – with the best record in the NBA Western Conference, are getting plenty of media and fan attention these days, which is well deserved. And the Colorado Rockies – even while they struggle – get plenty of mostly negative attention, which is still better than no attention at all. So there’s that.
At the college level, Neon Deion has put Colorado Buffaloes football back on the map. As long as he’s there, attention will be plentiful in Boulder. Tad Boyle’s basketball team is well supported too. Colorado State gets its fair share of coverage for both a sub-standard football program and a middling basketball program. Sanders’ arrival has helped boost interest in college football as a whole around here, which is a major positive.
You could make the case that the Air Force Falcons football team – the best program in the state the past half dozen years – doesn’t get enough media and fan attention from the metro area, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but then again, Colorado Springs is a different market, so it’s hard to say that even a very good Falcons team should be front page news around here.
No, without a doubt, the program that doesn’t get near the fan and media attention it deserves is the Denver Pioneer’s defending national champion hockey team. In case you’ve missed it, while local hockey fans have been riding the roller coaster this season with the Avalanche, the Pioneers have been quietly working toward a repeat of their own.
After dispatching arch rival Colorado College in a two-game set that included a mind boggling fifth career shutout against CC from goaltender Magnus Chrona, the Pios are sitting fourth in the national polls with just eight regular season games remaining. They sit atop the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings with 35 points and a 12-4 league record, they’re 21-7 overall.
There are eight games left in their regular season before they begin the postseason and serious defense of their crown. When that time arrives, David Carle’s program will start to get the attention they richly deserve.
Denver didn’t earn the moniker “Hockey Town” last year just because the Avs won the Cup. The Pioneers played a big role in that too. In fact, of the two, a repeat in the Frozen Four is probably more likely than another drink from Lord Stanley’s cup.