Broncos to cut Russell Wilson, take on $85M dead money hit

$85 million in dead cap money charged to one player. Imagine if that contract had been guaranteed.

wilson is still getting paid

Not the full amount of that contract.

Russell Wilson contract, explained: Why veteran QB may sign for league minimum after Broncos release | Sporting News.

making 39M and the falcons can get him for pennies for the season

And…the Broncos will suck in 2024 and 2025 barring a massive overperformance by rookies because they’ll be eating so much cap they won’t be able to sign free agents, possibly including some of their own.

Russell Wilson is number one and number five in all time dead cap money.
He is the Charlie Weiss of salary cap!

Edit , 7 not five

Here is a good column on why Wilson was so successful in Seattle and declined to where he bombed in Denver.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2024/03/05/russell-wilson-broncos-breakup-inevitable

And now the first casualty. They’re cutting one of their best players, on and off the field.

The Broncos have no choice but to go through salary cap purgatory now. It will be painful for two years, but if they should come out in a better position.

And for the latest, here is an example of how clueless Wilson and his agent were:

That is insane, no team would be willing to take that kind of a risk on a player that they are getting for on year virtually free.
I am curious how he will do under Tomlin, he is a no-nonsense coach and may be able to do something with him.

The thing is, he didn’t play that bad last year. His numbers are similar to those from his Seattle days and were better than Mahomes. But the offense was stagnant and he was a bad fit for Payton’s offense. But at 35, there was still no way any team was going to pony up that kind of $.

Tomlin may give him the freedom to be creative in a way that Payton didn’t.

During the regular season maybe…but he turned into a Beast during the playoffs.