Russell Wilson underwent surgery once the 2022 season came to an end. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Denver Broncos quarterback had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, and it was an injury that has been bothering Wilson for a few seasons. The surgery was considered a minor cleanup, and Wilson is expected to be 100% healthy when the Broncos start Organized Team Activities this offseason.
The procedure could help Wilson get back on track. He joined the Broncos last year after spending 10 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. And the 2022 season is one Wilson would like to forget as he completed just 60.5% of his passes and threw just 16 touchdowns. Wilson also dealt with multiple injuries, suffering a partially torn hamstring as well as a concussion, which led to him missing two games.
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After the Broncos’ final game of the 2022 season, Wilson told reporters things will be better in 2023. “I know that I feel like I fell short of my own standards and my own level of expectations, what I know how to do and how I love to do it,” Wilson said after a Broncos’ season-ending win over the Los Angeles Chargers, per the team’s official website. “I just want to recapture that.”
Wilson also talked about his motivation moving forward. “My motivation is winning,” Wilson said. “My motivation is helping this football team win. That is what I came here to do: to help the Denver Broncos win. We are going to do that. We are going to turn this thing around.”
The Broncos finished the 2022 season with a 5-12 record. They are hoping a healthy Wilson and the addition of head coach Sean Payton will get the team back to the playoffs for the first time since the Super Bowl season in 2015. Payton was the head coach of the New Orleans Saints from 2006-20021 and led the team to a Super Bowl win in 2009.
“I think it’s realistic for our fan base to expect a completely different type of culture,” Payton said during his introductory press conference in February. “It’s realistic for them to expect us to win. Now, to what degree? I remember the ’06 team [in New Orleans], and we finished the preseason — we had to play all of our preseason games on the road, I think, because the Superdome wasn’t ready. And then we had to open on the road for two weeks. After the second or third preseason game, we’d gotten beaten pretty bad by Dallas. I came into the locker room and I sat down with [Saints GM] Mickey [Loomis] and I said, ‘We’re not going to win a game with this team.’ And we ended up winning a lot of games.”
