Broncos’ Sean Payton telegraphs Russell Wilson’s departure

INDIANAPOLIS — Sean Payton isn’t a prolific tweeter, but he sees some social media activity.

In a recent staff meeting he brought up a meme that caught his attention.

“There’s a Bronco fan with a shirt on and there’s like eight quarterbacks’ names with a cross through it and he’s drinking the quarterback Kool-Aid,” Payton said Tuesday morning at the NFL combine.

The punch line: “Our job is to make sure the next one doesn’t have a line through it.”

The next one.

That, as much as anything, removes any remaining shred of mystery from a reality that hasn’t really had much doubt in recent weeks: Russell Wilson’s time in Denver is finished. The Broncos are head-long into a hunt for their next quarterback.

Payton and general manager George Paton were each unwilling to provide actual finality on Wilson, though Paton acknowledged he hasn’t sensed there’s any trade market for the quarterback just entering the five-year, $245 million extension the Broncos gave him in 2022.

Payton, at least, updated the timeline by saying that he expects a final decision regarding Wilson “within the next two weeks.”