We are Ryan Clady — 78 — days away from the start of the NFL season.
In anticipation, CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin ranked the league’s quarterbacks by division. As Broncos fans, we only care about the AFC portion. Just being honest.
Without further ado, newly-acquired Russell Wilson lands at No. 4 among 16 quarterbacks in the conference. The only QBs ahead of Mr. Unlimited are fellow AFC West member Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and another AFC West counterpart in Justin Herbert.
Let’s bookmark Benjamin’s piece to revisit after the season. For now, though, this is what he said about Wilson.
“If we’re looking strictly at past performance, Wilson probably deserves to be even higher,” Benjamin wrote. “He’s on a Hall of Fame path thanks to his pristine 10-year run in Seattle, where he led a perennial winner with unmatched poise, elusiveness and deep-ball touch. The question is, what version of Wilson are the Broncos getting?
“Certainly he’ll be better than the banged-up Russ of 2021, but is he still championship-caliber? At 33, in a league where Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers have hit new gears close to or beyond 40, time is still on his side.”
Not a bad take. Obviously, Broncos GM George Paton didn’t put much weight into Wilson’s injury-plagued ’21 season. Based on trade compensation. And with the seventh-best Super Bowl odds, oddsmakers clearly think Wilson is still championship caliber. Time will be our judge, though. Check out Benjamin’s full list as we wait for training camp.
