Sean Payton must prove his mettle following Russell Wilson fiasco

There is nothing to celebrate for Denver Broncos fans now that it has become official that the team will move on from Russell Wilson.

Though some within Broncos Country are going to rejoice at this news and disparage Wilson for how bad he was and what a horrible move it was to get him, that's not the right approach. Because at the end of the day, it's another failure for a team that has had way too many of those for a good deal of time now.

And Wilson was not that bad. No, he wasn't the same guy he was when he was with Seattle, but he still completed 63 percent of his passes while throwing for 6,594 yards with 42 touchdowns and 19 interceptions across 30 starts. That translates to a QBR of 90.9, a respectable number.

The problem was, he didn't win, which he did do in Seattle. Wilson was 11-19 as a starter and that just won't get it done. But that is not directly related to his poor play. Russ was simply not set up for success by the organization.

The Broncos tried very hard to get Aaron Rodgers ahead of the 2022 season, going as far as to hire Nathaniel Hackett as head coach in order to have extra leverage. When that didn't work out, George Paton knew he needed to make a big move and he traded for Wilson. That turned out to be the wrong move.

Hackett was one of the worst head coaching hires in the history of the league. Fired before he even got through one season, the team again knew it needed to make a splash move. That move was to bring in Sean Payton, lauded as some sort of quarterback guru.

It was clear that things were rocky between Payton and Wilson during most, if not all, of the time they were together. Now the team has moved on, willing to eat an incredibly ridiculous amount of dead money in the process.

Payton will have a massive hand in deciding who the next quarterback or quarterbacks of this team are going to be. He can't miss. He has to get this right and it seems that he is quite aware of that.

Russell Wilson will move on and likely find another starting job in the NFL. He will get a chance to prove that he still has something left to offer. Meanwhile, Payton will get a chance to find a better fit for what he likes to do and turn the franchise around... finally.

But what if he doesn't? What if the downward spiral continues? Will we blame the quarterback for being a bad fit? Or will we wonder aloud whether or not Payton is even that good of a coach?