Unsurprisingly, the Broncos’ decision to bench Russell Wilson has generated some fallout. The process that led to this call transpired during much of the team’s five-game win streak earlier this season
Wilson has been expecting to be released since shortly after the team’s win over the Chiefs on Oct. 29, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini (subscription required). Despite Wilson playing much better in 2023 than he did during a shockingly mediocre 2022, his contract has hovered as a big-picture issue for the Broncos.
Sean Payton acknowledged the economic component involved with this benching — one that comes exactly a year after the Raiders shelved Derek Carr to play Jarrett Stidham for contract reasons — but said the team wants to gather some intel on its backup before season’s end. With the Broncos’ last-second loss to the Patriots all but slamming the door shut on their playoff hopes, the initiation of Wilson divorce proceedings makes sense. The inevitable release will bring a seismic dead-money hit, one that will more than double the record the Falcons set last year ($40.5MM) when they traded Matt Ryan to the Colts.
It will cost the Broncos $84.6MM in dead money to cut Wilson in 2024. They will assuredly spread that number over two offseasons with a post-June 1 designation, but this will still represent a significant chapter in NFL transaction history — one that will hamstring the Broncos for two more years. It is unclear where Wilson will end up and how the Broncos — thanks to the Payton-Wilson experiment producing a midseason surge that revived the team’s playoff hopes — will go about replacing him. At 7-8, Denver’s draft slot sits 14th presently. But this drama has played out behind the scenes for weeks.
Shortly after the Broncos’ 24-9 win over the Chiefs, GM George Paton initiated the conversation to Wilson’s agent centered around the QB delaying his 2025 guarantee. The third-year Broncos GM said Wilson would be benched for the season’s final nine games if he did not delay the $37MM guarantee for 2025, Russini reports. That number, which shifts from an injury guarantee to a full guarantee on Day 5 of the 2024 league year, is behind the Broncos’ decision to bench Wilson now. This did not amount to a full-on ultimatum, according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who notes team brass went through Wilson’s agent rather than bringing the QB into a meeting and demanding he adjust his deal or lose his starting job.
The Broncos’ ultimatum, reiterated days after Paton’s initial request, prompted Wilson’s agent to contact the NFLPA, CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson reports. Paton is said to have noted Wilson’s benching would be financially motivated, rather than for skill or performance. Reviewing the matter, the NFLPA wrote a letter to the Broncos and indicated it had consulted with the NFL management council, per Anderson, who offers that the team then sent Wilson’s camp a letter conveying the QB’s refusal to change his contract’s guarantee structure would be respected. The letter, however, also indicated Payton would now dictate if Wilson would be benched. The Broncos never previously informed the 35-year-old passer when he would be shelved, however, according to Russini.
Ultimately, the Broncos’ talks with Wilson’s camp about delaying the 2025 guarantee were not amicable and were not in accordance with the CBA, per Anderson. Though, the team does not share the viewpoint the talks were not CBA-compliant. But this relationship — one that veered from disastrous to adequate on the field from 2022-23 — looks to have been deteriorating over the past two months. Wilson has likely thrown his last pass as a Bronco, with Stidham — given a two-year, $10MM deal in March — in place to start the final two games.
The contract component will lead to this trade being viewed as one of the worst in NFL history. Wilson’s 26-TD, eight-INT bounce-back effort notwithstanding, NFL.com’s James Palmer notes people in Denver’s building viewed this benching as a football-related call — with the obvious financial undercurrent — for the 2023 season’s remainder.
Payton has said the offense needs to improve, and Palmer adds the new Broncos HC believes too many elements are present in the team’s current attack. Prior to the Wilson-guided rally against the Patriots, the Broncos’ offense struggled during an ugly effort. Payton has since said he does not view the up-tempo attack Wilson thrived in as sustainable over the course of a game. Pro Football Focus rates the Broncos’ offensive line as seventh overall, but Palmer adds only Justin Fields has been pressured more than Wilson. Broncos staffers also believe the pocket has been cleaner than the sack-prone QB’s pattern would depict. Wilson ranks seventh in passer rating but 21st in QBR.
While this adds up to Payton believing the fit between his concepts and Wilson’s strengths — a long-rumored issue after the Broncos acquired the ex-Saints HC — is too clunky, the team (and potentially its GM) will pay the price in the form of the historic dead-money sum.
Paton said upon firing Nathaniel Hackett he believed Wilson was salvageable, and Payton said just before this season the potential Hall of Famer’s skills had not eroded despite his 2022 regression. Wilson partially proved both right, but the Broncos’ offensive performance was not justifying the trade cost or the $49MM-per-year extension. Following the report Wilson wanted Payton to replace Pete Carroll in Seattle, Payton being the one to bench the accomplished QB is rather ironic.
Stidham’s contract contains just $1MM guaranteed for 2024, but after his Raiders run brought one stunningly productive start (a 365-yard, three-TD outing against the 49ers) and one shaky showing (against the Chiefs), the Broncos will see what their backup can bring. Wilson has since tweeted, “Looking forward to what’s next.”
“As a head coach, you’ve got to make some tough decisions and they won’t always be right,” Payton said. “They just won’t. You go with your gut and your instincts. We need a spark. We need something right now. We’ll handle the long term when we get there.”
I wonder exactly what it is about Russell Wilson that nobody likes. At NC State he was very productive, but they seemed to push him out the door. In Seattle, he was again very productive, but his teammates were rumored to not like like him and eventually he had issues with Pete Carroll, who everyone seems to like. Now this. I get the contract is a problem, but that problem doesn’t go away when he gets released. They just seem very eager to get him out of the building.
That said he will be starting somewhere next season, lots of bad QB play throughout the league. Falcons maybe, Steelers.
Falcons fans here. Wouldn’t mind one year of Russ with Bijan Pitts and London
His ego!!!
He says the right things in public. He plays hard. He’s rarely hurt. There’s def something going on behind closed doors.
I think that’s likely the issue. Says the right thing publicly, but likely acts much different when the cameras aren’t on.
It has nothing to do with his play. He is a major tool. Google “mr. Unlimited” and let me know what you think.
Have a friend who was a coach of Russell’s. Said he’s not ‘team’ guy. Is not close at all with anyone on the team, comes in to the facility and leaves. Does the bare minimum and relies on his athletic ability (which at this age is fading). He’s all about himself and that doesn’t sit well with his teammates who work hard and care about their teammates.
You can trace this all the way from NC State, to Wisconsin, to the Seahawks, Broncos and even his attempt at playing baseball. Had it been one ex teammate or even one team that came out against him I would say it’s a personal grudge, but the fact it’s followed him everywhere there has to be some truth to it.
Just remember when you’re playing at a high level and winning, bad things will be tolerated, when you’re losing those things become magnified. In Wilson’s case, his winning days are over.
I put part of this on NFL contracts. The NFL makes more money than MLB and NBA combined but we constantly see teams scrambling to move money around.
Players like Wilson and Carr shouldn’t be benched for backup QBs simply for contractual reasons. It dilutes the product on the field and skews competition.
Teams move money around to increase their on the field product. The rams and the buccaneers dont win their superbowls without being able to shift qb cap hits into other years. The chiefs backloaded (from a cap perspective) mahomes contract, and you can see this year what not having receivers is like. You cannot field 22 starters on free agent (4th year +) deals You must move out draft well, but also engineer the cap to have the biggest chance of winning in a window.
Amazing how far he’s fallen
177.5 cm x 527 (sacks) = 93,542.5 cm. Roughly the length of 9 football fields.
To bad Bronco fans will still be stuck with Payton. He’s a tool. Rumor has it they had to put French Doors in Payton’s office so his head would fit through the door.
Rumor has it you weight 300lbs, and with your Cheeto dusted fingers wrote this comment. “akshually Russ has been a top 5 QB this year and Sean Payton is holding him back!”
Whatever Wilson has done or may be lacking, I don’t get this decision for the Broncos. They had a decent QB in Wilson this year, who showed quite an improvement and might have had potential for more.
Now the Broncos will have an accumulated salary cap hit of more than $ 40m for Stidham as QB1 next year and almost $ 50m without any QB in 2025. Payton said his team needs a spark – the upcoming cap situation is a tire fire, which still may not provide said spark at all, but much more likely burn him. At least, Payton does not strike me as a likable person at all, so any negative fallout will affect someone deserving…
Gruß,
BSHH
His stats look decent. Maybe it’s the team they put around him.
You box score lookers are comical. Look at every advanced metric, one of the lowest in epa, 1st in forced sacks to name a few. If you’ve actually watched the games, he’s almost unbearable to watch with Joe stagnate he makes the offense looks and can’t read defenses.
Sean Payton is overrated.
All he had to do was just kept his mouth shut while in Seattle instead he bitched, moaned and complained his final year there. Karma sure is a mother fu&@ ain’t it russy boy
I’d say “Good Luck, Broncos fans”. You’ve got a coach who has forced his will on your franchise which will cause your team to be financially hamstrung for the next two seasons, as opposed to trying to make something work out between the two. And that coach, while having won one Super Bowl, early in his coaching career, by the way, has made the playoffs in nine of his 15 seasons as coach. Wow! you might say but a closer look has that team getting to the Conference Championship game twice and losing both; while losing in the Divisional round four times and dropping out in the Wild Card round twice. For the rep he has and all the praise that has been heaped and heaped upon him, I’d say that’s money not well spent. Oh, and didn’t he get suspended for a whole season as well?
And this is the guy you want to cancel your big financial decision from the year before and lead your team into the future? All because he had the “guts” to do an on-side kickoff in the Super Bowl? Wow! indeed.
He wouldn’t even have that superbowl either if not for Brees.
Payton could always put a Practice Bounty on Wilson; keep it in the family
This reminds me of Houston being destroyed when they put Bill O’brien in charge and gave him full control to trade away all the picks and lose even more than they already were. Denver has a decade long type of rebuild coming soon potentially.
Potential Hall of Famer..?
Wilson is one of the most OVERRATED QB’s in the history of football. When he won he had elite receivers elite running back and a. Solid if not great D. Plus played in one of the most fan friendly stadiums in the nfl. Now when he has none of that but average players at best. He sucks. He is Joe Montana part 2 Always had amazing talent around him. Goes to KC and sucks
Montana at least brought some success to KC and didn’t cost as much either.
The Broncos front office needs to go. Signing that terrible contract, then threatening to bench the player if he doesn’t renegotiate, is basically doubling down on the mistake – as they’re now impacting on field decisions because of it. These are the kind of brainless companies that ratepayers subsidize stadiums for.
McDaniel, Hackett and Payton.
Broncos sure know how to pick ‘em…
It would seem Payton desperately wants to tank hard in 2024 to get a high draft pick and a new QB. He’s probably mad Wilson won as many games as he did this season. It set Payton back another season.
Wilson to Pittsburgh seems inevitable.
The greatest trade the Chicago Bears never made.
Pittsburgh trades Pickett to Denver for Russ
Wilson>Pickett
Mustang Sally
Steelers have a capologist for a GM. He wouldn’t touch Wilson with a mile high pole.
Wilson is bad. Payton is worse.
Neither Payton nor Wilson is “bad.” They don’t mix well & that happens in life. Better to accept the dead cap hit & move on, then continue down a known destructive path. Russ will be fine & once cut, will sign with a team that is set up better for him, that will welcome him wholeheartedly. My guess is he ends up in Las Vegas.
New England
Broncos should eat the entire hit this offseason, trade back, & accept 1 losing season while adding new players in the next 2 drafts. If Sean is so great, he should load up on mid round players show us how he builds a team in his vision.
We know that won’t happen and we’ll be told it’s a 3+ year long ‘rebuild’ instead.
Bucs made a season out of 77 million in dead cap this season. I don’t think it’ll be that hard to build around a team if they draft well and plug up holes. Any qb that can read defenses will be able to handle the play calling.