DENVER — The best insight into Russell Wilson last week came not from anonymous sources, or an axe looking for an easy grind, but from a guy who watched from prison as Mr. Unlimited lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
“I don’t think it’s one thing, and it’s not an excuse,” Ryan Leaf explained to me by phone Saturday. “I just wanted to comment on something that’s close to his heart because I know how much it has affected him. People have (expletive) all over him and I’m sick and tired of it. Has he brought some of it on himself? Yeah.”
Let’s be clear about a couple things, cards on the table. First, given his resume, you may not care what Leaf, now a football analyst and motivational speaker by trade, thinks about anything, let alone the most disappointing season in Broncos history. We get that. Leaf gets that, too.
Second, Leaf and Big Russ are not friends. But they had a mutual one in renowned sports psychologist and best-selling author Trevor Moawad, who served as a life coach, mentor and “brain buffer” for both.
Moawad passed away on Sept. 16, 2021, after a two-year battle with cancer. And to cut to the chase, as Leaf pointed out a few days ago on his TV show with PointsBet, “The Straight Line with Ryan Leaf,” Wilson hasn’t … really been the same since.
“You need a trainer,” the former NFL quarterback and Washington State star explained on the program, “to exercise the biggest muscle in your body.”
When Russ lost his, the results followed suit. In the 28 regular-season starts prior to Sept. 16, 2021, Wilson put up a 20-8 mark as a a starter while sporting a TD-to-interception ratio of 3.5-to-1 (63-18).
Over the 28 starts since Sept. 17, 2021, Mr. Unlimited’s record is 9-19 — 4-11 with the Broncos, 5-8 in Seattle — with a mere mortal TD-to-pick ratio of 2.17-to-1 (37-17).
You can bandy the merits of Moawad’s “neutral thinking” philosophy, or how much of Wilson’s schtick comes off as an unhealthy denial of reality. But you can’t debate the results. Or lack thereof. Without Moawad’s feedback, DangeRuss became Robot Russ, falling back on a feather bed of pre-programmed answers, regardless of the question.
“Those offseasons, that’s where a lot of their work got done,” Leaf told me. “And where they were cushions for each other. (Last) offseason brought a lot of change for Russ, a lot of guaranteed money — not that he hadn’t been paid when he was in Seattle.”
Leaf felt where Wilson missed Moawad the most was last spring, as his relationship with the Seahawks had clearly soured. The seeds of discontent were real, as management shipped him off last March once Broncos GM George Paton met the asking price.
From his first news conference in Denver onward, Wilson often looked oblivious, as if reading from a script instead of answering the query at his feet. Some of it was the shock from the change of the scenery, Leaf said. But some of it was because Moawad, who helped set up that programming in the first place, was out of the picture.
“I had some (empathy), because how impactful (Moawad) was to me — I know how important he was and I missed him greatly,” Leaf said.
“(Wilson) took himself to another level by doing things outside the box. But I do think the mental aspect of things … can be alienating when things aren’t going well.”
Leaf was on hand for the Broncos’ nadir of 2022, the Christmas Massacre in Los Angeles against the Rams, as part of the radio team with Westwood One. He ran into Wilson before the game and tried to engage him about the loss of Moawad. Leaf said that DangeRuss kept his game face up and “wouldn’t allow” it.
“He was so focused in trying to be exactly who he’s been. And I’m nowhere near as disciplined as he is. I still have negative thoughts that come up all the (darn) time, even though I’m trying to live Trevor’s thinking. And then (Wilson) went out and played the game that he played.”
Three picks, a 54.2 passer rating, a 51-14 shellacking, and bye-bye, Huggy Bear Hackett.
“But I really think this offseason came out perfectly for him,” Leaf said. “I do think you’re going to see a different Russ this season with Sean (Payton) at the helm. I do think (coaching) was an issue.”
And the mental coaching? The brain trainer?
“That loss of Trevor has been addressed this offseason, (from) people I’ve talked to,” Leaf replied. “I expect to see a different football player next year for the Broncos.”
Why?
“I won’t get into what I know, just for confidentially reasons. But I do think it’s a reset.
“If (Wilson) comes back and he has a great year, which I expect him to do, especially in Sean Payton’s offense, people will look at him and say, ‘(2022) was an absolute anomaly.’ And then I think they’re going to have to take an honest look in the mirror and go, ‘Why was I so angry at this guy?’ ”
None of this means Wilson is secretly a great teammate. Or that he loved Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider. Or that he didn’t demand a trade. Or that he keeps close enough tabs on his charities. Or that he was a good fit with Huggy Bear.
“Nothing is going to be (exorcised) until he suits up and has a 350-yard, three-touchdown game where they win,” Leaf said. “Until that happens — which is a long way away — this is the type of stuff he’s going to continue to (take) hits on.”
When you combine the news of the past five weeks with the play of the previous five months, the Twitter takeaway is that Wilson’s a fraud with a false front, a diva in decline, that the NFL’s most cringe quarterback is robbing the Broncos blind.
“He’s got to be able to compartmentalize that and do the work,” Leaf stressed. “And I think he’s got a great head coach who is incredibly diverse and multiple and smart to help them again have an advantage.
“I could’ve been the biggest (expletive) in the world. If I would’ve won football games, no one would’ve cared.”
Because in the game of public relations rock-paper-scissors, only one thing smothers a narrative once it’s gone off the rails. And that’s the scoreboard.
