Russell Wilson's red zone work promising, but Broncos need more

The culmination of Russell Wilson’s first touchdown drive Sunday against Miami looked familiar.

Eventually, it went as a mere footnote under a South Florida avalanche of points. All the same, it’s instructive of the veteran quarterback’s play early in his partnership with coach Sean Payton.

Up to this point on Denver’s second possession, Wilson had completed four of five passes for 49 yards. An in-rhythm dart to Jerry Jeudy for 15 on the first play of the drive. Then a slant to Courtland Sutton for 11. Then to Javonte Williams for 17. A shallow cross to Sutton before a tight-window, contested incompletion to Chris Manhertz in the end zone.

Everything on time and within the designed framework of the play.

But then on third-and-6 from the Dolphins’ 12, edge rushers Jaelen Phillips and Bradley Chubb used power rushes to collapse the pocket. Wilson stepped up, hoping to hit Sutton on an in-breaker. With the traffic around him, he scooted out of the pocket to the right, floated toward the sideline, bought time and then hit Sutton along the back line for a touchdown.

Off-schedule, on the run.

As a matter of fact, it’s also the third time in six touchdown passes this year Wilson’s converted on almost identical looking passes. Each of his two touchdowns against Las Vegas in Week 1 — 5-yarders to Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Sutton — came on the same type of red zone rep. Get outside the pocket to the right and let a receiver make a second-reaction play in the back corner of the end zone.

“The offensive line’s doing a great job on those scrambles just to give me enough time to make some plays. They’re doing a really good job of battling. It starts with those guys,” Wilson said. “Then the receivers and running back and tight ends, they’re doing a great job of being explosive and moving and getting ready to run and make some plays.

“… I think we’re getting the ball out relatively quickly and we’re taking some shots down the field, too, when they’re there. But those scramble plays do come up and when they do, they’ve got to be deadly.”

This is a glimpse of what the Wilson/Payton duo is supposed to look like. Play on schedule as often as possible, then let Wilson’s ability to create be a differentiator. The red zone becomes a natural target area because the space to operate gets condensed.

Of course, nothing’s perfect and Wilson hasn’t been either overall this year or in the red zone.

He picked a bad time to freelance against Washington on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line. The Broncos had a one-man route off of play-action, with Manhertz slipping a blocker. Wilson didn’t pull the trigger, then tried to make something out of nothing and got sacked. The drive ended in a field goal.

Overall, though, Payton expressed confidence in the way Wilson’s playing through three games this fall.

“No. 1, he’s moving well and he’s making good decisions,” the coach said. “I knew he could throw the deep ball well, but we’re seeing it. … We saw it at the end of training camp, and we’re seeing it now. He’s operating quickly and throwing well.”

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Wilson was moving at 14.15 miles per hour when he released the ball for Sutton against Miami and he’s now got more touchdown passes on the run than he did all of last year.

At the same time, the Broncos have scored just five touchdowns in 11 red zone trips. Wilson should have had another against Miami but Sutton couldn’t come up with a catch — you guessed it — along the back of the end zone after the quarterback bought time.

Wilson also took the bad sack against Washington and missed a wide open Marvin Mims, Jr., in the flat against Las Vegas.

While the Sutton drop against the Dolphins barely registered in the grand scheme of a 50-point margin, those misses against the Raiders and Commanders are the types that decide so many games in the NFL.

“We can get the ball in the end zone more,” Wilson said. “We should have had probably three more the other day. There’s some great things we’re doing, but there’s some things we’ve got to be better at.”

The Broncos scored touchdowns on four of their first five trips to the red zone, but are just one of their last six. Also included in those failures: Two trips inside the 10 against the Dolphins that were scuttled in part by Brandon Johnson penalties.

Payton said Wednesday improving that rate could well determine Sunday’s outing against the 0-3 Bears.

“I think this is a game where our red zone efficiency is going to be important,” he said. “But I would look at it a little bit more as a team on offense than specific to ‘Russ.’”

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Russell Wilson’s red zone work promising, but Broncos need more

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