keasley45
Well-known member
The Jets and Marc Wilson/Mike White is a bad analogy. First of all, the Jets are still very much in the hunt for the playoffs if not the division championship. The Broncos season is lost. Secondly, they didn't trade a boat load of picks and sign him to a long term, 1/4-billion-dollar contract, so benching him isn't nearly as difficult as it would be to bench a player like Russell.
You can say what you want about Russell, but he's as competitive of a player as I've ever seen. I can remember what his/our defense, who'd just got through accusing Russell for not being "black enough", said after Cam Newton wouldn't fall on a loose ball in the Super Bowl for fear of hurting himself, saying that their QB would have crawled through the hubs of hell to get that ball back.
Knowing that about Russell, how competitive he is, it's my guess that benching him wouldn't sit well with him at all, unless the object is to get him pissed off so that he demands a trade.
The Jets comp had nothing to do with their record and everything to do with a team who's morale was in the toilet and players were closer to mutiny than comradery over the poor play of the supposed 'franchise ' qb. They made the change and it removed the obvious flaw - poor player at the position and the refusal of the staff to do anything about it - which improved the overall morale of the team.
The difference in Denver is that they don't have a M White on the bench. But they can put this seasons Bronco out of its misery and shut Russ down.
The fans have turned on him. Hackett is no doubt 'ok' with the fact that the debate around who's fault the floundering offense is has sound his way toward vindication in that Kubiak can't do anything with the savior either. It's as bad as it gets and pretending it will get better because they keep trotting him out there is just insanity. His play isnl actually getting worse. Who's calling plays next? The equipment guy?
And his failure has nothing to do with his competitive will. Russ is as will always be a gamer. He's just not a great qb in the traditional sense, and he's not gonna fix that at all over the next 5 games. It's only going to get worse, the same as it has week over week for the last month.