Colin Cowherd explains how $245M changed Russell Wilson's game - "Russ got stubborn"

Colin Cowherd thinks that the $245 million that the Denver Broncos gave Russell Wilson led to his downfall in his first season there.

He did not mean that the quarterback became arrogant, but rather he believes that the player began thinking about the game differently.

Cowherd said that watching Russell Wilson last season, he could see that the quarterback could still scramble.

He said:

"Yeah, and I, when I watched Russell, the thing that struck me is that he was still very effective running he just stopped doing it now. He would get into late game situations when Nathaniel Hackett was a coach and he would take off once or twice and he was still very effective."

But the NFL commenter theorized that when Wilson got the big bucks, he thought he is going to be like other quarterbacks who get that kind of money. He referred to people like Peyton Manning, who are more pocket quarterbacks:

"I think when he got the big money, I'm gonna, I'm gonna theorize this, when he got the big money and I'm talking, you know, his contract was Mahomes-ish Peyton manning-ish right?

"And he got that big money I think Russell said to himself, ‘Okay, this has been reserved for guys that sit in the pocket. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be running around, be Russ anymore. I want to prove I can do it from the pocket’."

Cowherd thinks that Wilson got stubborn in trying to prove he could play in a way that was not suited to his strengths:

"And I really felt that he wanted to sort of pivot to an older, in-the-pocket, can-win-it-to-line-of-scrimmage quarterback. When in truth he's the same size mostly as Tua, who has acknowledged publicly there are times ‘I can't see over the offensive lineman’. So, I think Russ got stubborn."

The NFL commenter revealed that he even spoke to some people who studied the quarterback's film and came to this theory:

"I talked to somebody who had looked at film of Russ and they're like sometimes he looked stubborn is that… there's much better angles, you know, slide in the pocket.

"Russ kind of felt like, this is my take, he kind of wanted to prove, ‘Okay, this is a contract that's been for the great pocket passers of all time. I'm not going to be wild crazy run-around Russ’."

Colin Cowherd believes former Broncos great affected Russell Wilson's thinking

Cowherd also added that he thought when Peyton Manning spoke to Russell Wilson, the former Broncos quarterback might have leaned into him to play more like Drew Brees, who was of similar height to the current Broncos QB.

Cowherd said:

"And then when Peyton got there, you've noticed he's lost weight this offseason, I think Peyton said, “Russ, you know, if Drew Brees could have run, he would have run. It's an asset lean into it’.”

It will be interesting then to see how new coach Sean Payton handles the whole affair, considering Drew Brees thrived under him at the New Orleans Saints.

It remains to be seen if he gives the Broncos quarterback the freedom to thrive in his own way or model him into the quarterback he had before with the Saints.