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  • Renck & File: Giants’ Jaxson Dart is having fun. He won’t be smiling vs. Broncos on Sunday

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    Time for the anvil to drop on Arm&Hammer.

    Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart and running back Cam Skattebo have injected enthusiasm into the veins of a long-suffering fanbase, hope into a long-suffering franchise. They have a cool aforementioned nickname.

    Skattebo has been a revelation. Cast as a situational player in the draft, he boasts 338 yards rushing and five touchdowns. He is Brian Bosworth meets Mike Alstott, inspiring teammates with his rock’em, sock’em robot running style. He leads with his chin in every conversation and carry.

    But Dart needs to cool his jets. If, for no other reason, based on what just happened to the Jets.

    Some cayenne pepper got sprinkled on Sunday’s game with trash talk, sanitized as it was. Reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week Jonathon Cooper made it clear he is not impressed with Dart, saying, “He’s feeling himself a lil’ bit. He’s out there running around. He’s got the chain on. He’s dancing. I feel like everybody needs something, you know.”

    It was a warning. Dart found it amusing.

    “I think a lot of guys wear chains and dance when they score touchdowns,” Dart told the New York Post. “I appreciate him following my dance touchdowns.”

    Covering players like Dart is a blast. But quarterbacks lacking humility get clobbered by reality.

    Drew Lock ring any bells?

    He was the singing QB with the nifty backpack celebration until he wasn’t. He has been cast as a career backup since 2021. Dart is more athletic than Lock, but his total disregard for his body and overconfidence have helped him lead the league in blue tent visits the past three weeks.

    This Broncos defense is frothing, eager to put on a show to impress the Super Bowl 50 champions, who will be honored at halftime.

    Dart is great for the Giants, even if his yards per play are worse than Russell Wilson’s. He loves attention. He just picked the wrong week to engage in verbal jousting. The Broncos have not allowed a touchdown at home, while posting nine sacks.

    Good luck “Hanging with Mr. Cooper” on Sunday, Dart.

    It is the team, not QB: Time to stop pointing the finger at first-round quarterbacks who fail when history shows coaching and organizational dysfunction is largely to blame. Baker Mayfield is 5-1, and an MVP candidate. Daniel Jones is 5-1 and an MVP candidate. Sam Darnold is 4-2 for Seattle. Here are the records of the teams that drafted them: Cleveland is 1-5, the Giants are 2-3-1 and the Jets are winless.

    Wrong tone: The Chiefs welcome back receiver Rashee Rice this week. Can folks stop acting like he is returning from knee surgery? He was suspended for six games for his involvement in a six-car crash that resulted in multiple injuries and led Rice to plead guilty to two felony charges. His absence had nothing to do with his health.

    Latin for winning: Talked to Nuggets center Jonas Valanciunas. And teammates about Jonas Valanciunas. It is clear he has bought into his role as Nikola Jokic’s backup on a team with championship expectations, following the “Age Quod Agis” message posted on the practice wall. Translated, it means: “Do what you do.” Valanciunas gets it.

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    Troy Renck

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  • Renck: Russell Wilson went from “Let’s Ride” to “Last Ride” with Broncos, revealing dangers of desperation

    Renck: Russell Wilson went from “Let’s Ride” to “Last Ride” with Broncos, revealing dangers of desperation

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    From “Let’s Ride” to “Last Ride” in two years.

    Broncos coach Sean Payton filed for divorce from quarterback Russell Wilson on Monday. The only thing to figure out now is who gets custody of Thunder.

    I was enjoying my return to The Denver Post, stomach full of lunch and face sore from laughs. Then the phone pinged. Any time there is an alert in early March about an NFL team, it means you’re not going to be home for dinner.

    Wilson arrived in Denver in March 2022 determined to make history. This is not what he had in mind. The Broncos will take on an $85 million salary cap hit, divided over two seasons. No team has absorbed this much money for a mistake. As in, ever.

    When the Broncos acquired Wilson, he was viewed as a savior — a former Super Bowl champion capable of returning Denver to relevance. Somehow, inexplicably, he made it worse. He won 11 games for roughly $124 million, a return-on-investment cringe not seen since the Rockies shipped off pitcher Mike Hampton in 2002.

    It was not all Wilson’s fault, though his decision to reinvent himself as a pocket passer in 2022 under clown show coach Nathaniel Hackett and consistent failings in the red zone this past season left his fingerprints at the scene.

    No one quite knows how the Broncos became a quarterback nadir, replacing the Cleveland Browns. Peyton Manning retired, walking into a life of commercials and coaching youth football, and there became a sobering new reality. The Broncos did not know how to find a replacement. John Elway had as much to do with it as anybody when he whiffed on Paxton Lynch, leading to long-armed reaches into the island of misfit toys that included Joe Flacco and Case Keenum. When general manager George Paton took over in 2021, he inherited the mess at the league’s most important position. Watching the Broncos spiral out of playoff contention in the final month, he surveyed the AFC landscape and determined a franchise quarterback was a must.

    Tired of shopping for a couch on Craigslist, Paton wandered into IKEA and wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He traded four draft picks (two first-rounders, two second-rounders) and three starters (quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant and defensive end Shelby Harris) to Seattle in exchange for Wilson.

    The trade now serves as a cautionary tale of desperation. The Broncos gave up everything and ceded all power to Wilson in the relationship. Getting a revised contract was always part of the deal to waive his no-trade clause, though he will never play a down on his five-year, $242.5 million extension.

    Wilson was given the green light to bring his entourage into the building and function as a pseudo-coach.

    It was an epic failure. With Hackett complicit, Wilson sacrificed a season trying to prove he could run an offense that was designed for Aaron Rodgers, the Broncos’ original 2022 target before he received a new contract from the Green Bay Packers.

    At one point in 2022, nobody was neutral in Broncos Country about Wilson. They disliked him. Or hated him.

    When the Broncos hired Payton 13 months ago, he made it clear he was not married to the quarterback. He would give it a season. It only took 15 games and he went to Jarrett. Stidham, that is. He became the 13th starter since Super Bowl 50 and was as underwhelming as those before him.

    It is important to remember Payton was not brought here to fix Wilson. He was brought here to fix the Broncos. That could not happen, he decided, with Wilson. The Broncos offense stank in the red zone and specifically in goal-to-goal situations. While Payton was rather ordinary on game day in his return after a one-year hiatus, he laid the blame on Wilson.

    Russ went off script. He failed to call plays quickly enough. He forgot to send players in motion.

    Payton, however, did the impossible and made Wilson a sympathetic figure when he benched him as it leaked out that the Broncos asked Wilson to adjust his contract during the bye week last October. Wilson’s $37 million in base salary in 2025 would have become guaranteed if he had remained on the roster past March 17. Denver wanted to move the date back. Wilson balked and explained in December that it was then that a benching was first broached. I don’t blame the Broncos for asking for relief, nor do I blame Wilson for refusing. The relationship was fraying at the seams.

    When the season ended, Wilson held a morsel of hope that things could work out as the team publicly kept the door slightly ajar.

    Wilson reached out to me last week, saying he “forever wished it was going (to happen) in Denver. I really wanted to win there.” His first year was a lost season for several reasons, including injuries — hamstring, shoulder, concussion. But he believed he played well last season, posting 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was “grateful for long-lasting relationships,” but acknowledged it was time to move on from a “sad and disappointing” ending.

    No one will ever question Wilson’s work ethic or passion. He was better, but not in the eyes of the one person who mattered.

    Payton wants to run his offense — steeped in timing, execution and the ball coming out from the pocket. Scribbling outside the lines — Wilson’s strength — is not sustainable for the coach.

    Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, center, stands between Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson (3), left, and Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham (4), right, as the team comes out of the visiting tunnel before the game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on Jan. 7, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders took on Denver Broncos during week 18 of NFL season. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

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    Troy Renck

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