Whispers of locker room fractures were fated to emerge when the one-win Denver Broncos jumped out to a 1-5 start. As a result, head coach Sean Payton’s purge of the roster is well underway.
The roster shake-ups we’ve seen in the last week or so could be just the tip of the iceberg.
First out the door were edge-rushing flops Randy Gregory and Frank Clark, with their sheer lack of production, making the Broncos’ respective decisions to jettison them fairly simple
Payton’s ongoing roster purge remains fluid and wide receiver Jerry Jeudy is the name most often floated in rumors and reports when it comes to potential trade ahead of the October 31 NFL deadline.
At the podium, Payton has said one thing about trading players and doing the exact opposite — make no bones about it. Although he did admit recently that the Broncos will always listen when the phone rings.
While Payton may feel confident foiling the media with his coach-speak, he’s taking a much bigger risk of unsettling his own locker room. Payton’s strong hand has kept a lid on internal strife going public to date, but a few small snippets slipped out after the Broncos’ 19-8 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“We came up short,” Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles said on Thursday night. “The bottom line is that we’ve all got to get better. I’ve got to get better. Our players have to get better. Our coaches have to be better.”
Bolles accepted responsibility for the Broncos’ failures at the player level. But it’s rare to hear a player call out the coaches, even if it was more Freudian than calculated.
Bolles’ words ring true. Payton certainly has to be better, as he admitted to a massive snafu in Week 6’s loss at Arrowhead. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has been under fire all season long for the Broncos’ historically bad showing on his side of the ball.
With Bolles’ name being linked to trade rumors, speaking out about Payton and his coaching staff, even if it wasn’t by name, could accelerate a ticket out of town. However, the Broncos don’t have a young developmental option to replace Bolles in the starting lineup if he were to be traded.
“People are going to talk,’’ Bolles said Thursday night via Chris Tomasson of The Denver Gazette. “It starts with (the media). You guys start the rumors, so at the end of the day, I’m a Bronco. Everyone’s a Bronco. We’re going to ride as Broncos until otherwise. I stay positive and love my teammates. I love being here and we go from there.”
On Payton’s part, the search for answers throughout the entire organization is nothing new. In fact, it’s a healthy pursuit for a team that’s mired in the AFC West basement and angling for a top-5 draft pick in 2024, despite the presence of a quarter-billion-dollar quarterback.
Much now depends on whether Russell Wilson can continue to withstand the barrage of criticism that his last two lackluster outings have invited and how it’s clouded his future in Denver. Although some fans bemoan Wilson’s tone-deaf comments of optimism, he has remained stoic in preaching team unity thus far, especially if the Broncos are going to turn things around.
However, post-game on Thursday, Wilson passionately claimed that he’s going to sort out his own performance first and foremost. Just like we’re trained when we get on an airplane relative to deploying oxygen masks in the event of an emergency, Wilson can’t help the Broncos until he helps himself.
“We’ve been playing really good ball on offense for the past several weeks,” Wilson said. “I think the best thing we can do is just keep believing and play cleaner. I have to play better. That starts with me. I know I’ll respond the right way.”
