The Denver Broncos suffered a crushing loss to the New England Patriots this past Sunday, and afterward, quarterback Russell Wilson was asked about his future with the Broncos.
If the Broncos don’t part ways with Wilson before March, his $37 million salary for 2024 becomes guaranteed, so there has been speculation that Denver could cut ties with the veteran.
“I’m just worried about next week and playing great football,” Wilson said, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “I came here to win and win a championship for us and to find a way to do that. I obviously love being here with these guys, these teammates. I’m excited to keep playing ball and playing hard for us.”
Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million extension with Denver after the Broncos acquired him in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks in March 2022.
Trading Wilson would not exactly be a smooth venture for Denver.
Even if the club moves him before June 1, it will be forced to pay a $72 million cap penalty for 2024. If the Broncos release him with a post-June 1 designation, they will be hit with a $35.4 million charge.
That being said, it would actually still be cheaper for the Broncos to simply cut Wilson from a salary cap perspective. But the issue is, Denver gave up tons of assets to acquire Wilson, so it wouldn’t be so easy as just releasing him to save some money.
The Broncos and Wilson could always choose to revise the deal, but whether or not Wilson agrees to that would be anyone’s guess.
It’s not that Wilson has been bad this year. Far from it, as a matter of fact.
Through the first 15 games of 2023, the 35-year-old has thrown for 3,070 yards, 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 66.4 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 98.
He has certainly been a heck of a lot better than he was during his debut season in the Mile High City, where he totaled 16 touchdowns and 11 picks in what was the worst year of his NFL career.
However, the Broncos are just 7-8, and Wilson’s contract is putting some pretty tight constraints around what the team can realistically do to improve the roster.
We’ll see what Denver decides to do with Russell Wilson in the coming months.
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