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Keeler: Russell Wilson forced Sean Payton’s Broncos to get “young, hungry, dangerous.” It also made GM George Paton, franchise better

You’ll thank Russell Wilson one day.

Not because he showed up. Oh, no. Because he left.

Getting him was a risk. Extending him was screwy. But cutting Big Russ forced the Broncos to go cold turkey in record time, to eat a ton of cap money and go young all over the place. It forced a flushing of longtime, popular veterans, of established cultures and cliques. It allowed Sean Payton to rebuild a locker room in his image and with the kind of players he likes: Namely, with kids who are scared to death of him.