Greg Penner: Russell Wilson hasn’t performed to his expectations, but he will be great

Posted by Michael David Smith on October 29, 2022, 6:18 AM EDT
Denver Broncos v Los Angeles Chargers
Getty Images

Broncos CEO Greg Penner hadn’t bought the team yet when General Manager George Paton hired coach Nathaniel Hackett and traded for quarterback Russell Wilson. But Penner did support Paton giving Wilson a five-year, $245 million contract extension, and penner says he has no regrets.

Penner acknowledged that Wilson hasn’t been good enough so far this season, but Penner indicated that it’s Wilson himself who sets the highest standards, and that Penner expects Wilson to meet those standards.

“Russell’s won a lot of games in the NFL,’’ Penner said, via Mike Klis of 9 News in Denver. “He’s been a 9-time Pro Bowler, he’s won a Super Bowl. Russell knows how to win. The specifics on the contract area, that’s a place where I do rely on George and his expertise. I think he is going to be a great quarterback for us. He hasn’t performed at his expectations. But he’s a fierce competitor. And I think he’ll be a great quarterback for us.”

Penner acknowledged that the Broncos’ 2-5 start has been a major disappointment.

“You wake up on Monday morning, and you wonder if that really happened yesterday,” he said. “You kind of go through the first day or two of the week in a bit of a fog. This is ownership. And finally when you get to Wednesday or Thursday, you start looking forward to the next game.”

Penner isn’t promising that Hackett will be the coach for the next game. But he expects Wilson to be the quarterback for the next game, the next year and many years to come.

Permalink 28 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

28 responses to “Greg Penner: Russell Wilson hasn’t performed to his expectations, but he will be great”

  2. Living on Russel’s past glory don’t make him good today. He’s not going to start running better or making the throws he used to make. It’s age, not coaching, and you can’t fix that.

  3. Like one of the posters said last month, Wilson is older, slower, heavier, and still short.

  6. It’s a brand new coach. The entire team is learning a new system. The new coach is learning how to be a head coach. Russell Wilson has become much more comfortable within the system than he was at the beginning of the year. The receivers are not as comfortable. They’re still getting familiar, and they’re not always where they’re supposed to be. The backs aren’t always on the right page on blitz pickups, and neither is the offensive line. Russell is playing as well as he’s ever played. He doesn’t have as good foot speed as he once had, so his ability to escape is not what it once was, but it’s still pretty good. If you watch the tape with one of their offensive coaches who actually know what everyone is supposed to be doing and where everyone is supposed to be, you’ll see that Russell is not the problem. Not even close. Most owners have no idea about football. I don’t know anything about this particular owner. But I do know that it takes a while for a team that has a new coach to get everyone moving in the right direction. It also takes a while for a new coaching staff to figure out what the players can and can’t do within their scheme, and make the necessary personnel moves. That just doesn’t happen overnight. Bill Walsh went 2-14 his first season in San Francisco, but won the super bowl his third season. There were hardly any players left over from the previous regime by year three. Hopefully this owner at least understands a little bit about the nature of the game. You’re never going to correct problems if you can’t identify the problems. In this case, it’s just a matter of time. I’ve never met anyone who could speed up time. Did I mention Jimmy Johnson was 1-15 his first year and Chuck Noll was 1-13? Those owners stayed the course and they’re all in the HOF, and they all have lots of super bowl trophies, even though their initial seasons with their new coaches were actually worse than what we’re seeing in Denver.

  8. I had forgotten that weed was legalized in Colorado.
    These recent quotes from the Broncos organization reminded me that that is the case and also that they must have some powerful stuff there.

  9. Ah, so that’s how it works? You get paid $245 million to meet your *own* expectations? I see.

  11. Wilson isn’t playing great that is apparent, but he’s also got NOTHING around him. No running backs, no tes, no wide receivers, Denver is lacking alot. Hard to do anything with nothing.

  13. Wilson’s talent set is not sitting in the pocket and throwing 40 passes though I get it, he wants it to be so.

    He needs a strong running game to play action and a great defense. He needs what he had in Seattle.

    Denver may have those.

    The problem is Wilson doesn’t want to play the way he did in Seattle. That’s why he left. He wants to be Brady or Mahomes. He wants to throw it around and get accolades for doing so.

    But it’s not within his ability set.

  15. The Broncos have surrounded Wilson with talented players.
    Unfortunately most of them are in IR right now.
    Starting LT, RT, Swing T, G, WR, RB all on IR.

    This year was over hyped anyway. Broncos we’re never going to compete right away w a new coach/QB/system.

    Wilson has definitely struggled but putting it all on him is silly. No QB succeeds with a JV O line

  16. I’m def not sweating Russ. Hacketts another story.

    But I’m liking these first comments from the owner. I like how they’re leaning on the GM to manage, and not themselves meddling (at least on the surface). This doesn’t at all reek of a billionaire wanting to play with his toys, like it does for Dallas, Washington, etc.

    In the chain of command, having a good owner is by far most important, and not something that will pass in a few years like a HC or QB will, and so far, I’m very pleased with this foundation. Same for GM, Paton should be here to stay.

  18. Wilson would be great performing as a Carlton Banks impersonator at low level bars across the country. At least he is used to being booed.

  19. If the Broncos had invested $245mil, multiple high draft picks and several players on Hackett, they’d be saying the same thing about him as they’re saying about Wilson. They’re stuck with Wilson,for better or for worse. So far we’ve seen the worse. They’re praying for better.

  21. Let’s not forget Denver wasn’t a playoff team last year. Not even close. The people that said they were only a QB away from contending were wrong.

  22. This is the same caliber of play that we saw out of Russell Wilson the previous couple of seasons with the Seahawks. Hanging onto the ball way too long and no longer mobile and illusive like he used to be. The Broncos just didn’t do their homework before the trade.

  23. What are the Broncos going to say? They don’t want Wilson acting out like Kyler Murray. Last year Wilson was trying to change the call from the sidelines, forcing Pete Carroll to waste a lot of time outs to figure out what and why Russell was changing the plays. Frankly, I’ve never seen Carroll as visibly frustrated. Wilson also was adamant about returning early from his finger injury, to the detriment of the team. Geno should have started against Pittsburgh. No matter what ownership says, quarterbacks are now negatively impacting their teams as they pursue their goals and legacies.

  25. A stretch of sub par performances by an injured player and the entire world piles on.

    I’ve followed the League week in and week out going back to the days of the Landry and Morton/Staubach QB controversy (look it up).

    My take? Wilson’s a special player; he who laughs last, laughs best

  26. Russell Wilson is washed-up, overpriced trash at this point in his career, and every member of the Broncos’ front office should be vaporized for what they’ve done to a very talented and promising roster. Hackett is also the ultimate clown never-was and never-will-be.

  27. Ive got bad news for you Denver. He was Never Elite all he did his whole career is scramble around like Fran Tarkenton. One Super Bowl win doesnt make the HOF big time over reach to sign him for such a long deal. They will regret this deal for a long time.

  28. My guess is he’ll be much better once he’s able to reduce his use of the bathroom to once per week.

    Seriously wonder if this guy is cracking up.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.