Welcome to the final week of the 2023 (regular) season.
Because the Denver Broncos did not qualify for the playoffs, their season will end on Sunday. With the Broncos already eliminated from postseason contention, the biggest story around the team is the benching of quarterback Russell Wilson.
On the latest Broncos Wire podcast, I joined host Ryan O’Leary to discuss the Wilson situation, Jarrett Stidham replacing him, Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders and more.
You can listen to episode No. 102 below:
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Our notes for this week’s pod can be seen below.
- The outcome that was most likely — Denver has been eliminated from playoff contention due to other results in the AFC. Thus ends the 2023 season.
- The good news: The Broncos can still finish with a winning record (9-8) and Sean Payton has talked about how that was important for the Lions last year (and look at Detroit now). Payton is the first coach to get eight wins with Denver since Gary Kubiak stepped down following the 2016 season (which was their last winning season at 9-7).
- The results on offense really didn’t look that different from a Russell Wilson performance, BUT Stidham does not have $37 million guaranteed for injury.
- Stidham had several passes behind his receivers, but I’m not too worried about that because he hasn’t gotten first-team reps all season. He also threw it deep into double coverage a few times and could have been intercepted once or twice. So it certainly wasn’t a great performance.
- It was enough though. A win’s a win, the first victory of his career. He’ll now start the team’s season finale against the Raiders in Vegas.
- If they lose, could crack top 10 if teams above them win. If they win, Denver could drop as low as 18th. They’re not going to tank, though. The players want to win and Payton wants to win.
- Denver is a 2.5-point underdog and the over/under is 38. Blah, blah, blah, who cares?
- Can the Broncos win on the road and secure their first winning season since 2017? No postseason this year, but Denver can still end the season on a positive note.
Ryan and I will return next week to wrap up the season.
You can listen to every past episode below or at this link.
