DENVER — It’s no secret the 2022 season went about as poorly as it could have for the Denver Broncos.
After trading significant draft capital to acquire superstar quarterback Russell Wilson from Seattle, the Broncos fell flat on their face, going 5-12 and ultimately letting go of head coach Nathaniel Hackett after just one season.
This led to a national search to find the next coach willing to step in and try to fix the issues which plagued this team last year, starting with a significant fall from grace from Wilson - who threw a measly 16 touchdown passes while taking a league-leading 55 sacks.
Former Saints coach Sean Payton has come up a handful of times as a candidate for Denver’s open coaching position, and it’s easy to see why a coach with his offensive mind would appeal to the Broncos and Wilson.
National media pundit Colin Cowherd has spent a lot of time discussing Denver’s job opening, but his comments recently turned a little sour toward the Broncos and Wilson specifically, who he targeted not only for being past his prime, but for not engaging with his younger teammates.
Locked on Broncos host Cody Roark is here to say that Cowherd’s comments not only represent a sharp turnaround from his previous stance, they are simply untrue.
“He also said some things that I can tell you with 100 percent certainty from directly speaking with players that are false,” Roark said. “Russ doesn’t spend time with younger players, that is incorrect. Even in training camp he invited every undrafted rookie to a walkthrough in the morning. All throughout the season they had state of the union addresses…I just hate how these assassination attempts on his character start to come out.”
Cowherd’s negative comments about Wilson and the Broncos come on the heels of his advocating for Payton to take the job in Denver, as the Broncos have the kind of rich ownership that appeals to Payton at this stage in his career.
A sudden reversal, and a character assassination on Wilson, is the last thing this Denver team needs in the media when attempting to find the next coach to lead this program out of the AFC cellar and back into NFL playoff contention.