Analysis: Russell Wilson trade looks like Herschel Walker’s
The most lopsided trade in NFL history sent Herschel Walker to Minnesota for two fistfuls of players and draft picks that served as the pillars of the Dallas Cowboys’ dynasty of the 1990s.
The Russell Wilson trade isn’t quite so cockeyed, but eight months in it sure looks as one-sided as any deal since the Walker washout that Jerry Jones immediately dubbed “The Great Train Robbery.”
What Denver has 33 years later might very well go down as “The Big Bamboozle.”
Walker wasn’t exactly a bust in Minneapolis, scoring 25 touchdowns in 2 1/2 seasons with the Vikings. But he was long gone by the time the trade blossomed for the Cowboys after Jones and Jimmy Johnson drafted Emmitt Smith, Alexander Wright, Russell Maryland, Alvin Harper, Dixon Edwards, Robert Jones, Kevin Smith and Darren Woodson on their way to three Super Bowl parades.
Wilson hasn’t been anything like the Broncos expected when GM George Paton sent first- and second-round picks this year and next along with three players for the nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback who was supposedly still in his prime at age 33.
The $245 million extension he gave Wilson before the season only adds to the angst of Broncos fans who have watched a string of quarterbacks fail ever since Peyton Manning walked away to do game shows and commercials with his brothers after winning Super Bowl 50.
The Seahawks selected tackle Charles Cross in the first round and edge rusher Boye Mafe in the second with the premium picks they got from Denver. As it stands now, they’ll have the No. 6 overall selection in the 2023 draft thanks to Wilson’s debacle of a Denver debut.
Not only that, but Geno Smith, Wilson’s successor in Seattle, is having the kind of season everyone outside of Washington figured Wilson would have in the Rocky Mountains this year.
Smith has the surprising Seahawks tied with the 49ers atop the NFC West at 6-4. He’s completing a league-high 72.8% of his passes and has 17 touchdown throws and four interceptions in his first year as a starter since 2014.
With six losses in nine starts, Wilson is completing a career-worst 59.5% of his passes, is on pace for a career-high 57 sacks and has thrown just seven touchdown passes to go with five interceptions.
The Broncos are 3-7 and sitting in the basement of the AFC West after getting swept by the lowly Raiders and coach Josh McDaniels on Sunday.
The Seahawks are averaging 25.7 points per game with Smith at quarterback, just a tick more than the 25.3 they averaged during Wilson’s tenure in Seattle.
Wilson’s stunningly poor play in Denver prompted a reporter to ask him Sunday after the 22-16 overtime loss to the Raiders if the Broncos just aren’t good enough to win these type of games.
Fans are starting to wonder if it’s Wilson who isn’t good enough anymore because the Broncos have lost six games by one score and are negating Denver’s dominant defense by averaging just 14.7 points.
They’d be an NFL-best 9-1 right now if only they averaged in regulation the 19.7 points per game they did last year with Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock at quarterback.
Or the 20.2 they averaged the year before that when Lock led the league with 15 interceptions.
Or the 20.6 they averaged with Case Keenum in 2018.