Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer 1y

Russell Wilson acknowledges social media 'noise' but won't change his mindset

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Eight games into quarterback Russell Wilson's tenure with the Denver Broncos, his team has three wins, he's thrown six touchdown passes and he's been the subject of countless social media posts.

In short, he is the face that has launched thousands of memes, with a digital bullseye on almost every word he says or incompletion he throws.

“Listen, you’re aware just because of how the world works,’’ Wilson said recently. But that’s as close as Wilson has been, at least publicly, to acknowledging the hurricane of words that has seemed to follow him since the “Let’s ride’’ video kicked it all off in August.

“I think more than anything else, I’ve been trying to just stay focused on our team and focused on getting better as a group and not worrying about the outside noise,’’ Wilson said. “The thing is, we control the outside by how we play. That’s for everybody. That’s starting with me and starting with the whole team and our coaches.’’

The Broncos went into this week’s bye with the benefit of a game-winning drive in the final minutes of a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday in Wembley Stadium. But the Broncos still have the second-worst scoring offense in the NFL (behind only the Pittsburgh Steelers and rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett), the worst offense in the red zone and the second-worst offense on third down.

Wilson, who signed a $245 million contract just before the start of the regular season is squarely in the middle of a constant barrage of criticism, analysis and, well, mocking.

Between the "Let's ride" mantra, his "Wolverine blood" joke and an infamous Subway sandwich campaign, there's been no shortage of viral moments for Wilson.

And when asked about the flight to England last week, his airplane routine became the latest. 

"What was it? Eight hours to fly here,'' Wilson said. "The first two hours, I was watching film, watching all of the cut-ups and everything else. For 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, working on my legs and everything else, and making sure that I’m ready to rock."

Broncos general manager George Paton has called the simultaneous swirl around his first-year head coach, Nathaniel Hackett, and Wilson “unprecedented’’ in some ways given the Broncos have played in primetime four times to go with the stand-alone London game over the first eight weeks of the season.

“He's an amazing human being from that standpoint,’’ Hackett said when asked how Wilson has handled the noise around the team. “Everybody says what they want. They say whatever they want. That's part of this game. It comes with the territory. As a head coach, as a quarterback, you're always going to get that, especially if you don't win, especially if the offense doesn't look good, like it hasn't.’’

But given that Wilson has made no secret of wanting to win “multiple Super Bowls’’ in Denver, all eyes remain on him.

"My goal is to play 10 or 12 more years and hopefully win three or four more Super Bowls. That’s the plan. That’s the mindset. That’s why I came here, to hopefully be able to finish my career here, and to finish on top as a champion and do it multiple times," he said when he was first introduced in Denver.

Hackett in recent weeks said "you love everything about that guy, his leadership, his work ethic, his toughness, we're going to get it figured out and put him in the best positions to succeed and do the things he's most comfortable doing.''

Hackett and Wilson have supported each other publicly as Paton, even as he traded outside linebacker Bradley Chubb Tuesday, said he believes in Hackett, the coaching staff and what the team can do in their nine post-bye games.

"We’re in it for the long haul with Russ," Paton said in London.

There was also a moment Sunday, just after Wilson threw his fourth interception of the season on his second pass attempt of the game, when Hackett quickly went to his quarterback on the sideline and told him to “take a breath, breathe.’’

“I agree to a certain extent with Russell that he's not necessarily pressing, but he's always trying to make a play,” Hackett said Tuesday when asked about the sideline discussion. “That’s his mentality and that’s the great ones’ [mentality] -- the guys that have played a long time in this league and that have thrown for a lot of yards. They're always looking for those big plays. As we work together, I get to learn more when he's trying to find those, what he can do to get those and I'm trying to create those for him.’’

The teeth of the schedule remains, however, including two games against a team they haven’t beaten since 2015 -- the Kansas City Chiefs -- to go with road games against the Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams. Wilson’s mantras of “unwavering belief’’ and “storms don’t last’’ will be tested in every way.

“It just hasn’t come to fruition yet how we wanted it to as a collective group,’’ Wilson said. “Like I said, it starts one day at a time. You can’t build everything in one day."

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