On the verge of becoming a first-time free agent, Russell Wilson resides in limbo to close out his second season with the Broncos. Demoted after the Broncos fell out of reasonable playoff contention, Wilson has expected to be released for several weeks.
First, however, the 12th-year veteran will be Denver’s QB2 behind Jarrett Stidham against the Chargers. Unlike Derek Carr, who left the Raiders following his benching for Stidham last season, Wilson will dress for the Broncos’ Week 17 game. Beyond that, his situation is murky.
Wilson shed light on the Broncos’ reported attempt to change his guarantee vesting date. GM George Paton is believed to have contacted Wilson’s agent about adjusting the contract to move back the 2024 vesting date, according to the Denver Gazette’s Chris Tomasson. Wilson also confirmed (via Denver7’s Troy Renck) this occurred during Denver’s Week 10 bye, just after the team had beaten the Chiefs. The 35-year-old QB also said the team notified him he would be benched earlier had he not agreed to do so. After the NFLPA contacted the Broncos about this request, with Wilson adding the NFL indeed was also involved, the team did not follow through with benching its starter at that juncture. His five-year, $245MM contract remains untouched — for now.
“They came up to me during the bye week, beginning of the bye week — Monday or Tuesday — and told me if I didn’t change my contract, my injury guarantee, I’d be benched for the rest of the year,” Wilson said. “I was definitely disappointed about it. It was a process through the whole bye week. We had just came off beating the Chiefs. I was excited obviously for us fighting for the playoffs. The NFLPA and NFL got involved at some point, I think.
“… I wasn’t going to take away injury guarantees. This game is such a physical game. I’ve played for 12 years and that matters to me.”
The former Seahawks superstar suffered multiple injuries, including a concussion last season; he missed two games. Were he unable to pass a physical by the start of the 2024 league year, the Broncos would be locked into paying that guarantee. Sitting him to close out this season doubles as a bubble-wrap scenario Las Vegas utilized with Carr and Washington executed by sitting Robert Griffin III — to protect against his fifth-year option salary from locking in, back when the options were guaranteed for injury only — in 2015.
A 2024 release will hit the Broncos with a record-shattering dead-money figure, $84.6MM over two years in a post-June 1 cut scenario. (For perspective, the Falcons’ $40.5MM Matt Ryan dead-money hit is the current single-player record.) But Denver’s two-year starter said Friday (via Tomasson) he wants to stay with the Broncos beyond this season. That would almost definitely require a contract adjustment, and the nine-time Pro Bowler did not confirm he was open to that.
Indicating disappointment with the Broncos’ midseason request and calling it a “low blow,” Wilson still appears headed toward free agency. When asked about the October attempt to adjust Wilson’s contract, Payton said (via Tomasson) he was not privy to the matter pertaining to the injury guarantee. The timing of the request occurred between the Broncos’ wins over the Chiefs and Bills. While they won four more games after the request, the team’s losses to the Lions and Patriots have all but buried its playoff hopes.
The guarantee in question — a $37MM sum — covers Wilson’s 2025 base salary; it shifts from an injury guarantee to a full guarantee on Day 5 of the 2024 league year. The Broncos attempted this ultimatum measure to explore a post-2023 future with Wilson, Renck notes. The Broncos aimed to move the vesting date from March 2024 to March 2025 to provide them more flexibility, per Tomasson.
Faring better this season than he did in 2022, Wilson has still not justified the trade cost or the $49MM-per-year extension. The former Super Bowl champion would have had a better chance to stay in Denver for the 2024 season had he accepted the team’s terms, but it is not surprising he would decline this request. It would have represented a risk had he gotten injured during the season’s second half. Were that $37MM guarantee not in the equation, the Broncos could have cut Wilson in 2025 for $49MM rather than the $84.6MM total they will soon face.
Wilson is not expected to receive that extra $37MM, but his contract will have paid out the $124MM fully guaranteed; that represents a monster sum for two years of work. Barring an 11th-hour reconciliation, the parties will separate at some point between Super Bowl LVIII and that March vesting date. Wilson will presumably look for another chance at a starting job elsewhere, while his contract will hamstring the Broncos as they seek to replace him.
“I hope that it’s here. I hope that it’s here for a long time,” Wilson said of his playing future. “… But if it’s not here, I’ll be prepared to do that somewhere else.”
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com does say that the Broncos will only part ways with Wilson if a better option becomes available to them. After all, as we discussed when the news of Wilson’s benching was first reported, Wilson will account for roughly the same charge on Denver’s cap over the next two seasons regardless of whether the club cuts him or retains him through Day 5 of the 2024 league year (although the actual cash outlay would be $37MM less if Wilson is released prior to the vesting date). Rapoport floats the possibility of a trade, noting that Wilson’s no-trade clause would allow player and team to work together to engineer some sort of mutually-beneficial exit.
Likewise, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com acknowledges that keeping Wilson or trading him are options that remain on the table, but both pundits ultimately believe that a release is far and away the more realistic outcome. Assuming Wilson is indeed cut, the Broncos are likely to designate him as a post-June 1 release to at least spread his staggering dead money hit over two seasons, as Schefter confirms.
Rapoport notes, as we also detailed previously, that Payton is unhappy with the way his offense looks with Wilson at the helm. Payton, who was privately unsure how Wilson would perform in the system that Drew Brees thrived in for so many years, has had to pare down and simplify his scheme, and even that did not allow the offense to operate at the speed that would allow it to maximize its potential. Furthermore, players have seen on film how Wilson, despite some big fourth-quarter performances, has failed to find open receivers on a consistent basis, and some players wondered even before Wilson’s benching if Stidham would be the better option. Starting today, we will start to see if there is some merit to those musings.
Rory Parks contributed to this post.
He also said that he wanted to stay in Seattle!!
He might be playing for Seattle next season
I think that bridge is burned, but I guess you never say never. I would bet he ends up with the Giants or maybe Vegas? Geno is a better QB than RW and the kind of team first player that Pete and John prefer.
You want the Giants to sign an overly expensive veteran when they have all that money tied up in Daniel Jones. Such is PFR logic.
He’d only cost you the veteran minimum since Denver will still owe him the full contract.
Vegas seems like the most likely destination.
The Broncos are paying him. His next team will pay him the league minimum. Jones will be out until mid season that’s why I thought they might be interested.
Geno is NOT better than Wilson. Even a cursory glance at his stats would tell you that.
Stats aren’t everything. Geno is a much better team player.
Based on what? Geno has proven he’s the epitome of mediocre. Saying he’s better than a borderline HOFer, just because you don’t like one of them shows your extreme bias.
Based on what I wrote…response to looking at stats only. Geno is a much better team player. There is much more to players in any sport besides just stats.
You must not have followed Hawks and saw Russel going from a huge home town favorite to his ego taking over. Geno is no superstar but comment is he is a much better team playerthan Russ. Hawks do need to find long term answer.
Nope. I’m a Seahawk fan from Seattle. I’ve watched both Russ and Geno play every single game. What in the world says Geno is a better team player? Better results? Glowing reviews vs. bad reviews from fellow players?
There is a contingent in Seattle that believes Geno has surpassed Russ, but it’s just not true. It’s just your bias showing. Geno is as mediocre as they come.
Maybe the Pats, Steelers or Skins for 24. There aren’t more than 12 NFL QBS better than Russ.
He still has some left in the tank.
If he plays for the “skins” he will need a time machine or to be playing pick up basketball against the “shirts”. He might just be playing basketball for the “skins” much sooner than expected, though!
There might not be 12 better QBs, but I don’t think there are more than 10 QBs that can actually lead a team to meaningful playoff success right now and Russ is undoubtedly not one of that few.
124 million for 2 mediocre seasons. What a payday.
Mediocre? Wilson flat out sucked last year!
He’s been pretty solid this year though
Not solid enough. He got benched in preparation for him to get cut so that seems to be a problem as far as being solid goes.
Just like he did his last year in Seattle. John and Pete KNEW it was time to dump him and MAN they made out on that trade!! Most of here in the PNW WANTED him gone! He earned his dismissal in Seattle just like he earned it in Denver. He went from a humble, hungry Rookie to a Prima Dona in a VERY short time. Bye Bye Russ. Time to ride off into the Colorado sunset! Let’s ride Broncos Country…. all the way to some l lousy team out East! Were SO sick of this guy!!!
That’s on terrible team management. Football is the only major US sport without guaranteed contracts and it’s still not enough for some teams to screw themselves over.
There is no incentive for an NFL organization to show any competence. You get an equal revenue share regardless of how pathetic your team becomes.
Verified and approved by the owners of Detroit, Bears, Cards, Formerly DC, S Khan, Panthers, NYJ, Chargers…..Annually, the same teams lose. Parity is a myth.
Lions have clinched NFC North … Jaguars control their destiny for the AFC South … while the Patriots are playing for draft position.
Parity can be a wonderful thing.
Lions 1st division title since 1993. That’s a whole lot of losing there. Jags certainly aren’t the team they were made out to be.
Injuries on the offensive side of the ball have contributed to the Jags downfall.
Jax shut out Carolina and have one foot in the door toward the AFC South title. The prize for the AFC South winner is hosting a first-round playoff game vs. Cleveland or Miami.
If they offered to pay me off, I would have adjusted the contract. Otherwise, bad deal by the team; not on Russ.
Seattle 1 Den 0. Well played ‘Hawks.
He literally says the right things. He hopes he stays there in Denver, for instance. Of course he knows that would mean he’s getting paid more money than anywhere else he would be paid, at this juncture. It also makes him emphatically viewed by fans. Reality is, he will be playing for another team next year and it will be for a team of his choosing. His no trade clause makes it impossible to trade him, unless he wants it.
Russ, you will be on a new team next season
Russ must have insulted John Elway’s mother because this entire situation is insane. He has a 98 passer rating to go with a 66 completion pct and a 7-8 record in spite of a fragile oline and mediocre run game.
Is Drew Brees coming back? Makes no sense financially or performance based. Russ must be an insufferable pri@k for it to come to this.
I think you hit the nail on the head. When a player can’t get along with Pete, the ultimate player’s coach, there must be an issue there. Also, all of his teammates in Seattle thought he was a phony, and he does stupid things like call out his line in the media even though he holds the ball longer than any other QB in the NFL. He has burned down his relationship with two franchises to the point that they decided to move on from him, despite his talent, rather than to deal with his crap. It must be bad.
He has a 50% qbr, and fragile o line? The same o line that ranks 7th in PFF in the entire league? They also rank 5th in time given for the qb to throw. Russell ranks 1st in forced qb sacks and pressures. Anyone who’s watched games this year will tell you he’s not good. Rus also has only 3 300+ yards the last three seasons total. He’s also one of the biggest narcissist in football.
Couldn’t agree more!! Living in the Seattle area for more than 20 years, and watching his collapse, at first made me (us) feel bad for him. Then he changed. I guess BIG money does that to players. But we watched him decline while the NFL Networks kept praising him. He was finished as an elite QB when he was traded to Denver. It’s amazing that DENVER didn’t see this coming. There’s more people in that Organization that should have to follow Russ out the door…..
I had my doubts initially but was excited to see what he could do for us seeing how we’ve been in qb purgatiry hell since manning left. It’s been terrible to watch the past two seasons. I thought maybe it was Hackett, but he’s only marginally improved this season. Watching the games, he looks terrible for 90% of the games, then you’ll still see glimpses. It looks worse though that Hackett let him “cook” last season, and Payton had to dumb down the playbook to about 9 plays since rus couldn’t read defenses or anticipate throws. Ultimately the Walton group bought the broncos after rus was already signed. They or Payton have no ties to him. Only George Paton, whom will definitely be let go after the draft.
Let Russ walk.
Payton just flat out can’t stand the guy and doesn’t want him around. He says Wilson doesn’t know the offense well enough and run it fast enough. Well Brees isn’t coming out of retirement to save the day so who does Payton think is going to run that offense faster and better? This is as much about Sean Paytons ego as much as it is Russ’ and now for the next 2 seasons the Broncos will be paying those 2 over 100 mil combined while they tear down and rebuild. Basically they’re paying over 100 mil so Payton can rest his ego and be on charge. That’s a lot of scratch to soothe a mans ego. And to do it for a coach who has only ever won one Super Bowl….how many years ago? 15? 17? Uhhhhhhhh…..this is seriously Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Washington Red Skins territory of insane ineptitude.
Except Cleveland and Detroit are both going to the playoffs while the Redskins will have gone their separate ways.
It’s 86 not over 100 big guy. Calm down rus wasn’t the answer, nor will ever be relevant in the nfl again.
Russ should tell Denver to kick rocks, they’ve been garbage since Manning left. Russ would do fine with Commies, maybe he can help them find a coach
I bet I know where Wilson ends up playing in 2024. There’s no way Jimmy Garoppolo or Brian Hoyer are back with the Raiders next year, leaving them in need of a new veteran quarterback. After getting cut by the Broncos, he’s gonna want to prove them wrong, and there’s no better way to do that than to play against them twice a year. This becomes a win-win scenario for the Raiders, because the Broncos are already paying him, and the only salary cap relief Denver gets is from his new contract with his new team. They can sign their new starter for the veterans minimum, and get someone Denver gave up three first round picks to get. Al Davis will be laughing in his grave.
It seems like Russ is trying to take the high road, but technically every road in Denver is a high road, so…
Washed up QB married to a washed up auto-tune singer, both ugly as sin, marred by greed. Cut him so we can stop talking about this sad excuse of a player. Not our fault the broncos were desperate.
In what kind of bizarro-world are Russell Wilson and Ciara “ugly as sin”? Do you need a visit to the eye doctor?
Don’t get fooled by the TD/Int stats. Wilson has played like the 20th best QB in the league for most of the year – thus paying $40 million for that is foolish.
The best outcome for both parties would be a lower contract number for next year and beyond. Not sure how doable that is. Wilson’s current deal and his offensive limitations make him impossible to trade and near impossible to cut. Barring a miracle offseason, he’s not starting for Denver again, and at the very least, not long term. Both the team and the player need to acknowledge that this was an unsuccessful attempt, and that they owe it to each other to move on-either with Russell Wilson on a lower number in Denver or somewhere else. Does Wilson HAVE to adjust his deal? No, but if he doesn’t, he’s going to be untouchable by any possible interested teams (there won’t be many, even if he were a hotter commodity-most teams have a guy or figure to draft one), and Denver won’t be riding with him, either, as anything other than a backup. Even if he does return next year, and puts forth a good case to be the starter, there’s almost no chance that Denver is looking at this contract as a long term commitment. They want a new starter, and Wilson hasn’t improved enough to make him worth that commitment. The worst part is, like i’ve said, that Payton has decided that Wilson can’t run hus offense effectively enough, and apparently never will.
I think that they’ll eventually have to reach some agreement. Wilson doesn’t want to rot on the bench, and the team will be handicapped in what they can do with Wilson going forward. Not many teams will want to give up picks for Wilson at this point, but they may be willing to take on some of his salary on an adjusted deal. Personally, I don’t think Wilson is completely disconnected-these two years must have proven to him that he does have limitations. He knows that Denver didn’t work out. There has to be some personal incentive to address that, or at least to enable him to finish on a good note in Denver or somewhere else.
As far as I can see, Wilson and his agent have the trump hand here. The Broncos have to cut Wilson at the end of the season and pay out all the guarantees. After that Wilson can play wherever he wants. Nobody is trading for that contract (not unless the Broncos continue to pay half of it, which might not be a bad idea as the total would be less than guarantees). There’s also a no-trade clause I believe.
If there’s clawback language in the contract, then both Wilson and his new team would be best served by having Wilson play for league minimum or some modest number like $5 million/year (which could be justified on performance and reflects the pay of backups/former starters like Baker Mayfield and Jacoby Brissett).
That’s true-unless Denver just decides to live with it and hold on to Wilson next year, and playing a rookie or low level vet ahead of him. The dead money hit is truly massive, as is his cap hit. I could see Denver keeping him if they decide that the money just doesn’t work out.
That wouldn’t make a lot of sense as this entire fiasco has been driven by the injury-clause in his contract, not his play. If he is on the team next year, he will be the starter.
Denver’s $20m HC is also a bust. Just making excuses for himself.
This is not going end well for Sean Payton. I’ve lost a lot of respect for the guy in the last year. He’s a chump.
I’m not a Russell Wilson fan but Payton did him dirty.
As I said in a previous comment in another article, and in the same vein as to what ‘darth’ said above, good luck putting all of your eggs in the Sean Payton basket and trusting him with your franchise. Don’t you, IF you are a worthwhile head coach, manager, supervisor, LEADER of any kind figure out a way to be successful with what you have been given and make it work? Instead of throwing a three-year old like hissy fit and saying I need my people to run my system and I’m not going to stop whining and crying until I get it? And that regardless of how financially severe such moves would impact my future abilities to succeed? All because I have to get my way??
Good luck Broncos fans. Maybe I’m wrong in doubting Payton but 2009 was the last year he made it as far as a conference championship game. That was back when ol’ Joe could at least string a somewhat coherent sentence together.