Standout quarterbacks receive adulation and high salaries because they maximize a team’s strengths and conceal its flaws. The belief is the same around the league: If you have the quarterback, you always have a chance. Good ones, never mind great ones, are rare and coveted. But as saviors, they are more limited than portrayed. It’s the combination of quarterback and organizational competence that opens a Super Bowl window. As that window starts to close, a special player can prop it open for a while. But injuries turn up, roster-building mistakes add up, and the rules of a parity-based league catch up. After a while, there is only so much a quarterback can do, especially once defenses adjust to stopping him.
It’s true even for Wilson, the youngest of the bunch at 33, who convinced the Seattle Seahawks to trade him to the Denver Broncos in March because he wanted to play in a more autonomous, quarterback-driven system. But instead of amplifying his talent, the Broncos have exposed Wilson in a tenuous situation — rookie coach in over his head, new owner, new team president, more roster holes than perceived. He has been a great player for a decade, but he’s an aging, 5-foot-11 quarterback who needs to adjust his style of play for the sake of longevity. That requires the right talent around him, the right offensive strategist to orchestrate it and the right mind-set from Wilson.
No matter how much we glorify those precious athletes who extend their careers the way Brady has, age isn’t transcended as much as it is circumvented. Masking the body’s growing limitations is just as important as accentuating what you can do. It’s a mental game combined with a physical persistence, and the equation is one that must be constantly adjusted.
At 2-3 under Nathaniel Hackett, Denver has trouble managing games, let alone the big picture with Wilson. The quarterback signed a $245 million extension last month and is now under contract through the 2028 season. Before the season, the deal felt like stability for a franchise that had cycled through bad quarterbacks since Peyton Manning retired. Now, it’s starting to seem like an inescapable burden.
“I’m looking forward to turning it around,” said Wilson, who has completed just 59.4 percent of his throws and posted an 82.8 passer rating through five games, alarmingly below his career numbers of 64.8 percent and 101.1. “Because when we do, it’s going to be a special story.”
The Denver offense ranks 18th in yards per game and has averaged just 15 points, second worst in the NFL. As an individual performer, Wilson probably will play better. The question is whether it will be enough to impact winning.
In the NFL, a confluence of factors is making it far more difficult for quarterbacks of all ages to carry weakening rosters. A year ago, the season ended with these six quarterbacks leading the league in passer rating: Rodgers (111.9), Joe Burrow (108.3), Dak Prescott (104.2), Kirk Cousins (103.1), Wilson (103.1) and Stafford (102.9). Through five weeks, Rodgers is the only one who ranks in the top 10, and he’s 10th at 95.8, well off his MVP pace of the previous two seasons.
Burrow is 14th. Cousins is 16th, Wilson 22nd and Stafford 23rd. Prescott hasn’t been on the field since breaking his thumb in Week 1….
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