Keeler: If Russell Wilson wants to save his brand, he has to save Broncos first

The very best perception into Russell Wilson final week got here not from nameless sources, or an axe on the lookout for a simple grind, however from a man who watched from jail as Mr. Limitless lifted the Lombardi Trophy.

“I don’t suppose it’s one factor, and it’s not an excuse,” Ryan Leaf defined to me by cellphone Saturday. “I simply wished to touch upon one thing that’s near his coronary heart as a result of I understand how a lot it has affected him. Folks have (expletive) throughout him and I’m sick and uninterested in it. Has he introduced a few of it on himself? Yeah.”

Let’s be clear a couple of couple issues, playing cards on the desk. First, given his resume, you could not care what Leaf, now a soccer analyst and motivational speaker by commerce, thinks about something, not to mention essentially the most disappointing season in Broncos historical past. We get that. Leaf will get that, too.

Second, Leaf and Huge Russ should not mates. However they’d a mutual one in famend sports activities psychologist and best-selling writer Trevor Moawad, who served as a life coach, mentor and “mind buffer” for each.

Moawad handed away on Sept. 16, 2021, after a two-year battle with most cancers. And to chop to the chase, as Leaf identified just a few days in the past on his TV present with PointsBet, “The Straight Line with Ryan Leaf,” Wilson hasn’t … actually been the identical since.

“You want a coach,” the previous NFL quarterback and Washington State star explained on the program, “to train the most important muscle in your physique.”

When Russ misplaced his, the outcomes adopted swimsuit. Within the 28 regular-season begins previous to September 16, 2021, Wilson put up a 20-8 mark as a a starter whereas sporting a TD-to-interception ratio of three.5-to-1 (63-18).

Over the 28 begins since Sept. 17, 2021, Mr. Limitless’s report is 9-19 — 4-11 with the Broncos, 5-8 in Seattle — with a mere mortal TD-to-pick ratio of two.17-to-1 (37-17).

You possibly can bandy the deserves of Moawad’s “impartial pondering” philosophy, or how a lot of Wilson’s schtick comes off as an unhealthy denial of actuality. However you may’t debate the outcomes. Or lack thereof. With out Moawad’s suggestions, DangeRuss turned Robotic Russ, falling again on a feather mattress of pre-programmed solutions, whatever the query.

“These offseasons, that’s the place a whole lot of their work bought accomplished,” Leaf informed me. “And the place they had been cushions for one another. (Final) offseason introduced a whole lot of change for Russ, a whole lot of assured cash — not that he hadn’t been paid when he was in Seattle.”

Leaf felt the place Wilson missed Moawad essentially the most was final spring, as his relationship with the Seahawks had clearly soured. The seeds of discontent had been actual, as administration shipped him off final March as soon as Broncos GM George Paton met the asking value.

From his first information convention in Denver onward, Wilson typically seemed oblivious, as if studying from a script as an alternative of answering the question at his ft. A few of it was the shock from the change of the surroundings, Leaf mentioned. However a few of it was as a result of Moawad, who helped arrange that programming within the first place, was out of the image.

“I had some (empathy), as a result of how impactful (Moawad) was to me — I understand how vital he was and I missed him significantly,” Leaf mentioned.

“(Wilson) took himself to a different degree by doing issues exterior the field. However I do suppose the psychological facet of issues … will be alienating when issues aren’t going nicely.”

Leaf was available for the Broncos’ nadir of 2022, the Christmas Bloodbath in Los Angeles towards the Rams, as a part of the radio workforce with Westwood One. He bumped into Wilson earlier than the sport and tried to interact him in regards to the lack of Moawad. Leaf mentioned that DangeRuss stored his recreation face up and “wouldn’t enable” it.

“He was so centered in making an attempt to be precisely who he’s been. And I’m nowhere close to as disciplined as he’s. I nonetheless have unfavorable ideas that come up all of the (darn) time, regardless that I’m making an attempt to reside Trevor’s pondering. After which (Wilson) went out and performed the sport that he performed.”

Three picks, a 54.2 passer score, a 51-14 shellacking, and bye-bye, Huggy Bear Hackett.

“However I actually suppose this offseason got here out completely for him,” Leaf mentioned. “I do suppose you’re going to see a special Russ this season with Sean (Payton) on the helm. I do suppose (teaching) was a difficulty.”

And the psychological teaching? The mind coach?

“That lack of Trevor has been addressed this offseason, (from) folks I’ve talked to,” Leaf replied. “I anticipate to see a special soccer participant subsequent 12 months for the Broncos.”

Why?

“I received’t get into what I do know, only for confidentially causes. However I do suppose it’s a reset.

“If (Wilson) comes again and he has an important 12 months, which I anticipate him to do, particularly in Sean Payton’s offense, folks will take a look at him and say, ‘(2022) was an absolute anomaly.’ After which I feel they’re going to need to take an sincere look within the mirror and go, ‘Why was I so offended at this man?’”

None of this implies Wilson is secretly an important teammate. Or that he liked Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider. Or that he didn’t demand a commerce. Or that he retains shut sufficient tabs on his charities. Or that he was an excellent match with Huggy Bear.

“Nothing goes to be (exorcised) till he fits up and has a 350-yard, three-touchdown recreation the place they win,” Leaf mentioned. “Till that occurs — which is a good distance away — that is the kind of stuff he’s going to proceed to (take) hits on.”

Whenever you mix the information of the previous 5 weeks with the play of the earlier 5 months, the Twitter takeaway is that Wilson’s a fraud with a false entrance, a diva in decline, that the NFL’s most cringe quarterback is robbing the Broncos blind.

“He’s bought to have the ability to compartmentalize that and do the work,” Leaf pressured. “And I feel he’s bought an important head coach who’s extremely various and a number of and good to assist them once more have a bonus.

“I might’ve been the most important (expletive) on the earth. If I might’ve received soccer video games, nobody would’ve cared.”

As a result of within the recreation of public relations rock-paper-scissors, just one factor smothers a story as soon as it’s gone off the rails. And that’s the scoreboard.