‘Lean, strong and ready to go’: Russell Wilson is leaner heading into second year with Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Heading into his second season with the team, Los Angeles quarterback Denver Broncos, Russell Wilsonhas kept a lower profile this offseason as he seeks to right the wrongs of his first season with the team.

As the Broncos work on OTA, Wilson is visibly leaner than he was in 2022. He has yet to say how much weight he’s lost in recent months — “I’m not counting” — but he has stated that things will be different this time.

“I wanted to have the best offseason of my life,” Wilson said recently. “…Ultimately, we want to be the best version of ourselves.”

On his conditioning, Wilson said, “I’m better than ever…I feel great, I feel lean and strong and ready to go.”

Rosters can be a sketchy place to find a player’s actual weight, especially with teams like the Broncos who have completely changed their strength and conditioning personnel. Wilson is listed at the same weight as last season: 215 pounds.

After Wilson arrived in Denver last year, several staff executives said privately that his upper body looked bigger than it did during his time with the Seattle Seahawks.

So far, Wilson has ranked his leanest look as part of his review from last season.

“You always want to be in the best shape of your life, I’m ready for that, better than ever,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s debut season in Denver didn’t exactly go according to plan. The Broncos had the lowest scoring offense in the league, fired their head coach in December, and missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season. For his part, Wilson looked out of sorts for most of the year with slow footwork coupled with surprising decisions.

He finished the season with a career-low 16 touchdown passes and a career-high 55 sacks, not what the Broncos traded five draft picks, including two first-round and two second-round picks, plus three players to acquire. Plus, that’s not why they signed him to a $245 million contract shortly after he arrived.

“Every year you reflect,” Wilson said. “…Things you can always do better, things you can work on.”

The Broncos turned Sean Payton into one of the highest-paid coaches in the league to fix Wilson, get the offense out of the bottom third of the league, and point the Broncos to the postseason. And Payton has already instilled in players the mantra to never look back to avoid a repeat of 2022.

In many ways, Payton has intentionally de-profiled individual players in the public domain, including on the team’s own website, in order to re-establish the organization. As one player said: “It’s going to be different, very different around how much you feel like you can be out there.”

It’s certainly a show-and-don’t-tell approach, and that’s evident in Wilson’s offseason thus far. Wilson, like many of his teammates, has been on the court in Los Angeles playoff games. Denver Nuggets and he’s there again for the NBA Finals.

But last spring and summer, Wilson’s tour of the city, his training in San Diego, the visits he made as part of his foundation were a constant on social networks. The first pitch in the game of the Colorado Rockiesa night out with his family, an appearance at a charity dinner, a well-launched spiral to close out an afternoon workout, or even that day’s workout, were all in the universe of social media.

There has been largely silence on those fronts, for the most part, this year. Even when Payton was asked specifically about Wilson’s progress on offense, he avoided the details.

“He’s adjusting: the cadence and all those things that are required,” Payton said. “For the first five weeks, we were just lifting weights and running. Now we’re getting into some football activity. We’re ahead of schedule for practice. He’s learning it well, he looks good and he looks flawless.”

Wilson has called Payton “a great master of the game” as they build their working relationship.

“He’s doing well,” Payton said Thursday.

And Wilson has already ingratiated himself with some of his new teammates with the Broncos eyeing the final two weeks of their offseason schedule.

“For a long time I really couldn’t stand Russell because of the number of times he beat us,” the right tackle said. Mike McGlinchey, who was the team’s biggest signing in free agency. “But being in the locker room with him, being in the group with him has been amazing… he’s a workhorse. He is addicted to this sport… with the coach, with us, with the talent that this team has; I think we have a very good opportunity to take Russ to even higher heights than where he’s been.”