Part 1: The End (of the season)

January 9, 2022 – Glendale, Arizona

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

An agonizing season had come to an end. The Seahawks had finished 7-10 – a result that, in many ways, felt like a miracle. Pete Carroll would be lucky to survive “Black Monday”, but he might not make it to training camp. Adding to that was that the luster seemed to have gone out of GM John Schneider’s trade magic, as a litany of bad decisions left the Seahawks with only three draft picks, none of which were inside the first two rounds. It seemed that this duo that had ensured their place in Seahawks lore,

might have only two options open to them – leave town, or cave in to whatever ridiculous demands might be placed on them by their star player. But could you blame him? The poor drafting and poorer trades had left Russell Wilson more exposed than ever. It seemed almost a relief to him that the broken finger he suffered in Week 5

would place him on Injured Reserve for a portion of the season, hubristically returning in Week 10 only to be shutout by the Packers and further humiliated in successive weeks by losses to Arizona & Washington. But a home victory against the hated 49ers in Week 13 was the catalyst to starting a 4-2 run and ruining the Jets’ chances of using their pick from the Seahawks in the top-5 of the draft, dropping it to tenth. As another consolation prize, their victory against the Cardinals in Week 18 cost Arizona the division & meant they had to play on the road against the Rams in the Wild Card round.

The Seahawks were headed into an off-season unlike any other in their recent history. They did not want to change, but they knew change was coming.

January 9, 2022 – Denver, Colorado

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season… — you know what? Fuck that noise. It was awful being a Broncos fan. You had just sat through a season of irredeemable quarterbacking. The 2021 team was so bad it actually drove Broncos legend, and – more importantly for the current iteration of the team – the Special Assistant to the Owner, John Elway

to actually step back from the team before the season actually started. It was his inability to properly draft a quarterback that had led Denver to recruit Peyton Manning to the Mile High City, and that Super Bowl victory was what currently had them in the predicament they were facing. Since 2015, he had brought in

• Trevor Siemian (2015-17)
• Paxton Lynch (2016-17)
• Case Keenum (2018)
• Joe Flacco (2019)
• Brandon Allen (2019)
• Drew Lock (2019-2021)
• Jeff Driskel (2020)
• Brett Rypien (2019-20)
• Kendall Hinton (2020)

In the two years leading up to his 2021 departure from the GM position, he hadn’t even drafted a quarterback, as if the position was undraftable to someone of his lofty stats and stature. So, he simply turned the job over to someone else. The man who had piled high the garbage and lit the flame of the inferno somehow thought not showing up for work would absolve him of its responsibility. But he had his rings, and his gold jacket, so he knew that his legacy could always be renewed; and so, he walked away from the problem of his own making.

And what a problem it was.

A season that once held great promise had sputtered to a predictable conclusion. They had started 3-0 under Teddy Bridgewater, a last-minute decision when it was determined that they had nothing to show from training camp but a dumpster fire. And although they had beaten teams worse than them – the Giants, Jags & Jets – it seemed like some momentum might carry them through to a surprise finish.

That hope quickly faded, as four straight losses to higher quality opponents led to a return of that perennial feeling of malaise around the Broncos camp. The fourth loss, to the Browns, seemed to be the signal for new GM George Paton began the final stages of the Super Bowl 50 de-construction. With John Elway comfortably away golfing on Sundays now, he began the structural rebuild by trading chicken fanatic Von Miller

to the Rams for LA’s second- & third-round picks in the 2022 draft.

Losing Teddy Bridgewater in Week 15 marked the no-return point of the season. Going 2-5 coming out of their bye to end the season spelled the end of Vic Fangio’s time in Denver, and his replacement Nate Hackett was expected to bring fresh ideas from Green Bay to Denver (hopefully along with a disenfranchised recent MVP quarterback). With the announcement of the franchise’s sale expected within weeks of the season’s end, the Broncos were on the cusp of a historic sea change in professional outlook.

All it needed was a spark, and that spark was something Elway’s replacement George Paton had been formulating in his mind since the bye. Since only one strategy had worked for John Elway, maybe it would work for him too.