Denver Broncos fans are rejoicing on the heels of Tuesday’s news that Russell Wilson is their new quarterback. Joe Staley thinks they are ultimately going to be disappointed.
Staley, who played a number of huge games vs. the Seahawks and Wilson over the years, told Papa & Lund that he doesn’t think Wilson will have much success in Denver, and that he’s never been all that high on him as a QB.
“I’m not a huge Russell Wilson believer,” Staley said on KNBR. “I know there’s a lot of people that put him up in the top tier echelon of quarterbacks in the NFL over the last decade, but I think a lot of his success, if you go back to the years they were dominating us, it was more that defense. He was able to play a slower paced game and take those shots downfield, but you saw once that defense was kind of gone, the Legion of Boom was gone, they kind of started losing that pass rush, it was more a run of the mill defense and it was more on Russell Wilson’s shoulders.
“Even with all those weapons that he had. You look at DK Metcalf, one of the best receivers in the NFL. Tyler Lockett, who I think is better than anybody he has on Denver’s roster right now currently. I don’t know if he has the weapons around him to be successful in Denver. Also they don’t have draft picks cause they had to give all those draft picks up to get him out there.”
In the post Legion of Boom years (after 2016) the Seahawks didn’t once have a passing offense in the top 10 of the league. However, Wilson ranked very highly individually in those seasons. From 2017-2020, Wilson was ranked as the 11th, 6th, 1st and 6th best quarterback respectively in the NFL per Pro Football Focus. Last year was a down year, with Wilson finishing the season ranked 19th as the Seahawks missed the playoffs.
“I don’t think he’s going to be a huge difference maker everyone thinks he’s going to be,” Staley concluded.
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Papa & Lund weekdays from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.
