Russell Wilson Reacts To Nathaniel Hackett Criticism

Getty Russell Wilson awaits kickoff on the Broncos sideline.

There have been far more complaints than compliments about the 2022 Denver Broncos.  That goes for pretty much everyone involved, the players, the coaches, even the training staff has been questioned. 

Denver’s struggles have been thrown into the national spotlight even more with lackluster games being broadcast in prime-time spots. This week of course will highlight them internationally, with a trip to London to face the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Breaking Down The Eight Hour Flight

Russell Wilson appears ready to go after a week of not playing with a hamstring injury, telling reporters he’s, “feeling great.” When asked about the eight hour flight, Wilson said he kept moving quite a bit mid-air. “I’ve traveled enough to get my system down,” Wilson told the media. “The first two hours I was watching film, all the cut-ups and everything else. The next four hours I was doing treatment on the plane. I was walking up and down the aisles, everybody else was knocked out I was doing high-knees and working on my legs and everything else. So that was good, the last couple hours I fell asleep and watched more film.”

Wilson Responds To Criticism Of Coach Hackett

The quarterback took on a more serious tone when asked about his head coach and the criticism of Nathaniel Hackett thus far. “You’re aware just because of how the world works,” Russell answered when asked if he’d heard many of the complaints. ” I think that more than anything else I’ve been trying to just stay focused on our team and focus on us getting better as a collective group and not worrying about the outside noise. Because the thing is, we can control the outside noise by how we play. And that’s for everybody starting with me, our team the coaches.”

Wilson continued that he’s perfectly aware Denver has under-achieved to this point. “Even thought it’s hard, it hasn’t been what we want it to be, storms don’t always last. This one’s not going to last because we’re going to work our tails off. I think Coach Hackett’s a tremendous coach, he’s worked his butt off, same with the rest of the coaching staff. It hasn’t come to fruition yet how we want it to as a collective group. It starts with one day at a time.”

While most of the attention from reporters was on “non-gameday” items, Wilson did manage to slip a few words in about the Week 8 matchup. “It’s a key game for us, a really good team we’re playing” Wilson said about Jacksonville. “I don’t think that both of our records really indicate who we are. It will be cool to play back in London again, I remember last time I got to play here it was pretty special. The environment is amazing, world class.” Wilson concluded that the team has had a good week of practice and the, “guys are really bonding and connecting” on the trip.

Wilson played in London in 2018 with the Seattle Seahawks, beating the Oakland Raiders 27-3 at Wembley Stadium. The Broncos haven’t played overseas since 2010 when they lost to the Sn Francisco 49ers 24-16 at Wembley Stadium. The Broncos and Jaguars will be the second London game of the year and part of four international games. On November 21 the 49ers play the Cardinals in Mexico City and on November 13 the Seahawks play the Buccaneers in Munich, Germany.