MADISON, Wis. — Hate to break the bad news to you, Broncos fans: The Rockies drafted a better quarterback than anybody on your NFL roster. How messed up is that?

The solution to the quarterback quandary in Denver might be an infielder who appeared so inept while batting .228 in the low minors for the Rockies that Russell Wilson walked away from pro baseball in June to join the University of Wisconsin football team.

Although he has trouble hitting the curve, Russell firmly established himself as a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate on Saturday night, throwing for 255 yards and two touchdowns as his undefeated Badgers routed Nebraska 48-17.

So I had to know: What’s more difficult, putting a bat on a breaking ball or connecting with a receiver on a deep out route?

“I don’t think either one is too hard,” Wilson said.

Did somebody mix up the draft boards for the Broncos and Rockies in 2010? Could we blame this all on a computer virus? How could a series of such unfortunate events be separated last year by only a matter of weeks?

While reaching for quarterback Tim Tebow in the first round, Broncos coach Josh McDaniels took such a pratfall that he got fired.

Solidifying his reputation for less-than-stellar judgment on position players, Colorado general manager Dan O’Dowd used a fourth-round selection on Wilson, whose most notable item on his athletic resume was passing for more than 8,500 yards in three seasons as the quarterback at North Carolina State.

“If there’s a better player in college football right now, I’d like to see it,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said.

Nebraska raised the curtain on its football membership in the Big Ten. And the opening-night reviews are in: Oh, yuck. This lopsided defeat was as hard to swallow as a whole bag of cheese curds, which is basically known as cheese that’s not yet ready to eat in every state except Wisconsin, where it’s considered a delicacy.

Sorry, Dr. Tom Osborne. You and the Huskers are no longer rolling in the field of daisies that was the northern outpost of the Big 12. Wisconsin, ranked No. 7 in the national polls, is a decidedly more inhospitable place to play football than those leisurely weekend jaunts the Big Red formerly took to Ames, Iowa.

The Rockies were disappointed earlier this summer when Wilson hung up his baseball spikes with their Class-A team in Asheville, N.C. He took advantage of an NCAA rule that allowed him to apply his final year of football eligibility at Wisconsin because he had already earned a degree from North Carolina State, which told him to get lost.

So what does Bielema think of the fact the Badgers have been turned into national-title contenders by the grace of a rental player?

“Hallelujah,” Bielema said. “He wanted to play professional baseball and the environment he was in (at N.C. State), it wasn’t possible to go back and be the starting quarterback. So we were an option for him.”

Should Wilson decide he would rather pursue employment in the NFL than report to spring training with other Colorado minor-leaguers in 2012, the infielder/quarterback would be required to forfeit approximately 50 percent of the $200,000 signing bonus he negotiated with the Rockies.

Rather than ask for his money back, perhaps O’Dowd can find a sweeter deal right in his own backyard.

Rather than waiting for the Broncos to lose so many times they earn a top-five pick to draft a college quarterback, local NFL executive John Elway could pick up the cellphone and talk trade with the Rockies.

A modest proposal: The Broncos send Brady Quinn, who played a little baseball in high school, offer to buy a humidor for the minor-league baseball team in Colorado Springs and give O’Dowd a $500 gift certificate at any of two convenient Elway steakhouses in return for the rights to Wilson.

Straight up.

Deal?

Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com