Russell Wilson Badgered Broncos Teammates Until They Yelled 'Run' or 'Pass' to Help Their Defense
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The Denver Broncos lost their first game of the season on Monday in a contest that had an ending we will be talking about all season. With a minute remaining, coach Nathaniel Hackett took the ball out of Russell Wilson's hands and put it on the foot of kicker Brandon McManus. Maybe that's because no one was on the sideline yelling yelling "run" or "pass," as they were when Denver's defense was on the field. As you can see in this clip, that's because Russell Wilson was demanding they do just that.
Russell Wilson demanded the #Broncos sideline will yell "Run or Pass" to help the defense against the #Seahawks (@NFLFilms)pic.twitter.com/fce04dItvT
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 15, 2022
Have you ever seen this in the NFL before? It seems like a great waste of energy to try and alert the defense of what is happening on the field in front of them. If you're a professional football player, you can probably identify if it's a run or pass before someone else sees it and shouts it to you in the middle of a noisy football stadium. This would be like shouting "fastball" at Jose Altuve after the ball has already left the pitcher's hand.
But that's Russell Wilson. A guy who really wants to lead, but just doesn't seem to know how to do it in a way that won't make you roll your eyes. He shows up to training camp in a big truck wearing his own jersey then he practices running onto the field giving high fives. He just can't stop himself from trying too hard.
I’m sorry, is he… practicing high fives? #Denver7 pic.twitter.com/OPbHe1owCS
— Nick Rothschild (@nick_rothschild) September 9, 2022
If this was something that NFL teams did, the Broncos coaches probably would have worked on it before the season started. It seems incredibly amateurish to try and bug your teammates about this in the middle of the game.
It's not like the defense was helpless out there. They only gave up 17 points, which was the eighth-lowest total in the league in week 1. And they only gave up 253 yards, which was fourth-best. They appeared to be doing alright no matter what was being yelled on the sideline.