DENVER — Russell Wilson cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol on Friday but will not play Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett said the decision to sit Wilson was made by a group that included the top levels of the organization.
“As an organization, we’ve decided to give him another week so that he’s ready to go for the Los Angeles Rams,” Hackett said in ruling Wilson out. “Russ is one of the ultimate competitors in our game. He’s unbelievable. We informed him of the decision and he’s not happy with it. He wants to get out there and play. He’s competitive, as we all know, and wants to compete for this team and be out there.
“We, as an organization, after discussing and talking through this entire week, have decided it’s best for our organization, best for Russell. We talked about this from top all the way to the bottom, looked at every single thing and just want to give him another week to get ready.”
In a brief gathering at his locker, Wilson said he wanted to play.
“Went through all the testing, all the protocol stuff. Did a great job through it all, really flying colors, everything was great,” he said. “Got to practice this week, but they wanted to give me another week to recover and all that. For me, I always want to be out on the field. I believe in competing and being out on the field no matter what the circumstances are. I’m an old-school quarterback in that sense, that you have to be out there. At the same time, it was a collective decision by the organization.”
Wilson was knocked out of Sunday’s loss to Kansas City and he appeared to briefly lose consciousness after he hit his head on the Empower Field grass.
Wilson steadily advanced through stages of the protocol early in the week. Wednesday he was a non-participant in practice but did individual work as part of the process of clearing through sport-specific conditioning.
Then Thursday he participated on a limited basis in practice, moving through another step.
The veteran quarterback missed one other start this year, in Week 7 when he was dealing with a hamstring injury suffered late in a Monday night loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. He has been on the injury report with three different ailments this year: The concussion, the hamstring and an injury to his right lat that required a platelet-rich plasma injection.
