Roster Changes:

The immediate question for Wilson’s surrounding cast comes in the form of his offensive line. The sheer number of sacks allowed by Seattle became somewhat of a running gag. He has taken 394 sacks in his career with the Seahawks, by far the most of any quarterback in that span. 

The problem here is, Denver’s projected offensive line for the upcoming season is looking scarily similar to the ones that Wilson has had to put up with in Seattle. Both are characterized by a franchise left tackle (Duane Brown in Seattle and Garett Bolles in Denver) followed by a group of unproven prospects and “stopgap”, replacement level veterans. Denver certainly has more upside along the line in terms of investment, drafting Quinn Meinerz last year with hopes that he could eventually develop into a physical “mauler” in the run game. However, his lack of polish in pass protection along with the physical limitations of the right side of that line leave fans asking similar questions about Russell Wilson’s time in the pocket in 2022.

In terms of his weapons, Wilson has a much deeper cast of skill players this time around. Having Sutton, Jeudy, Tim Patrick, and even K.J. Hamler on the boundary will allow newly hired head coach Nathaniel Hackett to modernize his offense, inevitably featuring a heavy dose of 11 personnel, shotgun formations. (3 WR 1 HB 1 TE) WIth that being said, those names don’t jump off the page with the same level of star power as a true “X” receiver like D.K. Metcalf (at least not yet).

Scheme Fit

Hackett will undoubtedly make use of similar concepts from his days in Green Bay, which amounts to a west coast, horizontally-based offense. Up front, most agree that the Broncos will employ a zone blocking scheme in the run game, opening up natural gaps laterally for the running back to sort through, rather than assigning men to gaps and forcing the back to hit a particular hole. Wilson will be familiar with all of this right from the jump as his most recent system revolved around wide zone runs coupled with play-action, bootleg style concepts off of that look.

The one schematic question centers around the balance Hackett is able to strike with route distribution. Wilson made a living off of long-developing post and corner routes in the past, enabling him to lob the ball in a bucket right over the defender’s outstretched hand. Especially now that he’s getting older, his deep accuracy is his greatest strength. Knowing that, Hackett will have to mix in some vertical stretches into the west coast offense in order to maximize his signal caller in 2022.