Two years in the NFL might as well be an eternity. Consider the differences between Denver’s season-opening trip to Seattle in 2022 and the Broncos’ season-opening trip to Seattle on Sunday (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS).
Then, former Seattle starter Russell Wilson returned with preseason hype the size of Mount Ranier. On the other sideline that night, Geno Smith was the most written-off quarterback in recent memory. In the end, Smith led Seattle to a 17-16 win and eventually led the Seahawks to the NFC playoffs. ESPN’s Lisa Salters asked him after the game what he would say to the folks who had written him off.
“Yeah, they wrote me off but I ain’t wrote back, though,” Smith said. “That’s the problem. I ain’t write back. Let’s go!”
Seattle now has a coaching staff headed by Mike Macdonald that includes offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who teamed with Kalen DeBoer, Michael Penix and Rome Odunze to dominate college football last season just up the sound at the University of Washington.
Denver now has a coaching staff headed by Sean Payton. Sunday’s game marks the first NFL start for quarterback Bo Nix, who battled Grubb and the Huskies annually when he starred at Oregon.
Nix, 24, is less than 10 years younger than Smith, even though Smith entered the NFL in the 2013 draft. Nix will become the fifth-oldest rookie quarterback to start an NFL opener.