Quarterback Russell Wilson’s time as a member of the Denver Broncos is coming to an end, and Seattle Sports host Stacy Rost is ready to take a small victory lap.
On Wednesday’s edition of Bump & Stacy, Rost knew she was right in believing that Russ wasn’t the best fit in Denver despite pushback from Broncos fans.
But Stacy Rost first wanted to make it clear that she was not celebrating Wilson’s demotion.
“Look, we’re not dancing on anyone’s grave here,” she said. “I want to start by saying that.”
Co-host Michael Bumpus said he was surprised when he first learned that Broncos head coach Sean Payton was benching Wilson in favor of backup Jarrett Stidham. He felt like with Denver still in the AFC playoff hunt, the timing of Wilson’s benching was poor. But obviously, the team didn’t see him as the quarterback of the future.
“Let’s keep it real, Russell’s had a good year after bouncing back from last year,” he said. “You’re benching a guy that gives you the best opportunity in my opinion – unless I see something in Stidham that I haven’t seen in the last five, six years or something like that. You’re benching that guy and that lets me know you’re done. You’re ready to move on no matter what happens this year. You’re not worried about making the playoffs. You want to make sure your guy’s in there, and you don’t want to guarantee him 37 million dollars. The relationship is ruined over there. It is a wrap.”
Rost said the main story isn’t that Wilson was playing badly and was deserving of being benched. It is more about Payton and the Broncos front office being ready to write a new chapter at the quarterback position.
“This is them saying, ‘Hey we don’t care if Jarrett Stidham isn’t as good,’ and he’s not,” she said. “Like Russell Wilson at a subpar Russell Wilson, which is who he’s been in Denver, is better than Jarrett Stidham. This is about Denver saying, ‘We’re ready to move on.'”
Stacy Rost in 2022, when Wilson was traded from the Seattle Seahawks to Denver, appeared on sister station Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, and faced criticism from Broncos fans for speaking about the risks involved with taking in a guy like Russ at this point in his career.
“When I went on the Denver station, I said look, Russell’s a complicated person,” she said. “He’s a Hall of Fame caliber player, but there are some issues in that marriage when he left Seattle that you’ve gotta figure out. Is he gonna take feedback, is he gonna continue to grow, is he going to find those things that he wants to correct within himself.”
Rost continued by acknowledging that Wilson wasn’t exactly set up for success under then-head coach Nathaniel Hackett, and that it was clear that Payton never considered Russ to be his quarterback. So not having the backing of the head coach meant the writing was essentially on the wall for Wilson.
Rost later took to X to ask Denver Sports host Mark Schlereth if it was a good time for that victory lap. Schlereth in October of 2022 responded to Stacy’s mention of him saying to pump the brakes on the idea that the Russell Wilson experiment in Denver was a failure.
