As much as Broncos Country would like to forget the Russell Wilson error, inducing amnesia for the biggest blunder in team history would be an even bigger mistake for an NFL franchise that has been fooling itself for too long.

Let every one of those 85-million dead presidents in record-setting dead money against the salary cap finally teach the Broncos a lesson this organization has been painfully slow to learn.

It takes more than a cheesy “Let’s Ride!” slogan to revive a dead horse.

A winning culture cannot be bought, which is exactly what a well-intended, but football-naive, new ownership group tried to do in 2022 by throwing money at Wilson before he threw a touchdown pass in Denver.

A stubbornly entrenched losing culture cannot be bullied out of existence, try as coach Sean Payton might huff, puff and blow it away with arrogant bluster from Broncos headquarters.

For eight maddening years, ever since that March day in 2016 when quarterback Peyton Manning announced his retirement, during the warm afterglow of winning Super Bowl 50, the Broncos have been trying to put a Band-Aid on a team bleeding orange, while Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were building a dynasty down the street in the AFC West.

Saying goodbye to Wilson, which the Broncos finally did Monday, more than two months after the rest of us knew DangeRuss was gone, is a solid first step in acknowledging this team needs to be rebuilt from the studs rather than continuously patching over nagging problems with expensive tweaks.

“On behalf of the Broncos, we thank Russell for his contributions and dedication to our team and community, while wishing him the best as he continues his career,” Payton and general manager George Paton said in a farewell statement stiffer than an awkward handshake.

Another sad day for a football team that has endured far too many sad Sundays during the course of an eight-season playoff drought?

No. Let the record show that March 4, 2024, has the chance to be the best day in Broncos Country since Manning arrived in our dusty old cowtown way back in March 2012.

Although it stings, ripping off the Band-Aid from the DangeRuss Error feels oddly liberating.

For eight long years, everyone from John Elway to Greg Penner has been guilty of believing there could be a miracle cure for what ails the Broncos. This stubbornly optimistic, but misguided, mentality led to blunders from Case Keenum to Nathaniel Hackett.

It wasn’t Wilson’s fault the Broncos threw too many draft picks at him, then doubled-down by offering a massive contract extension, born of way too eager dollars from the Walmart empire and far too little common football sense for a way-too-often-sacked quarterback on the wrong side of his 30th birthday.

When ownership threw even more money at a $245-million mistake by hiring Payton at a premium salary, the grand delusion was thinking a stubborn coach intent on winning his way was ever truly invested in winning with Wilson as his starting quarterback. The relationship seemed doomed to divorce long before the very public display of disaffection between Payton and Wilson on a December night in Detroit.

Now it appears the Broncos have no reasonable choice except to exhibit the patience required to draft and develop a young prospect, whether it’s J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix or my personal choice of Michael Penix Jr., to put a merciful end to the meme of crossing out names of failed QBs on an orange jersey.

Now we’ll see if Payton was nuts to leave a cushy seat on the Fox television set to take a job with a veteran quarterback he didn’t want on a roster distinctly lacking in Pro Bowl talent, with a future burdened by a lack of draft capital and looming salary-cap trouble.

While the Super Bowl ring he won as coach of the New Orleans Saints will shine forever, his success (or failure) at being the whisperer to a quarterback that can bring the Broncos back from the dead will be Payton’s legacy.

Get it right and Payton can get himself fitted with something even shinier than a championship ring: a good jacket fit to wear for induction at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.