ENGLEWOOD, Colo — Whether Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson has been benched for business or performance reasons has been a topic of much debate, nearly dwarfing the benching topic itself.
Know this: It’s not good business for a team to eat $39 million of Wilson’s salary next year and be forced to manage a player payroll with more than $80 million in wasted dead cap over the next two seasons. The Broncos would have been much better off — business-wise and performance-wise — had Wilson worked out as Sean Payton’s quarterback.
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The fact Payton became dissatisfied with how Wilson operated his offense is what drove the decision to switch quarterbacks to Jarrett Stidham — and yes, in turn, demoting Russ to backup helps the Broncos reduce their risk of paying Russ another $37 million in 2025.
Could the Broncos have better handled their contract adjustment negotiations with Wilson on Halloween night? No doubt. Would it have been better for Wilson’s long-term future had he been willing to make a compromise adjustment? Maybe. The next two or three years of his career will tell.
But it doesn’t matter now. It’s over. There will be no more restructure negotiations. It figures the Broncos will at least try to trade Wilson this offseason, although his no-trade clause figures to make that nearly impossible. If no trade, then the Broncos are expected to release Wilson in mid-March and move on.
It’s a shame it had to come to this. But the shame is here.
Could there be a twist in the dramatic plot if Stidham twists an ankle Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers and Wilson comes off the bench and heroically leads the Broncos to victory?
Wouldn't that be something. But, no, it would not. Never say a bridge has been burned when emotions are raw. But the planks have been doused and there are matchbooks at both ends.
Wilson most assuredly will play somewhere else next year. The Broncos still have Stidham under contract for another year, and they figure to draft another quarterback and perhaps sign a free agent with a few more NFL starts behind his throwing arm.
After Payton told his players about the quarterback change during their Wednesday morning team meeting, and then announced it to the press, he stopped by to chat with 9NEWS about the topics of the week.
Payton: “Look, there’s only a few things you can do and we haven’t been scoring. I know we went on a run there, we won some games and I understand the economics of today’s NFL but we’re trying to find a way to win this game. And you’ve got to trust your gut as a head coach. And Jarrett’s a guy that we saw a lot of good things from when we signed him in the offseason. He’ll have a great opportunity this week.
“It’s similar to some degree to what happened last year in Las Vegas (with Derek Carr not only benched but sent home for the final two games in favor of Stidham, as it turned out) and yet it’s entirely different. Russ is going to be up as the 2 and he may very well have to enter the game. And so our job is to try and win this game.”
9NEWS: What did you like about Stidham as you signed him, and then you must have liked the way he handled himself as the backup all year.
Payton: “He’s a good decision-maker. He’s real accurate. The other thing is he’s got for his size — he’s got good size (6-3, 215), but he’s got very good feet. For us, we got to see him play in a regular season game (last year) against a good defense in San Francisco and then Kansas City. I think that really helped us when it came to making the decision to sign him.’’
9NEWS: Used to be when a team finished with an interim head coach, that team was meat. But at this time last year, Jerry Rosburg took over this team and the Broncos played much better. The Chargers with Giff Smith gave Buffalo all they wanted in Buffalo last week. This could be a much different Chargers team than the one you faced three weeks ago.
“I think it will be. And it’s not surprising. Just take a look at what’s happening in Las Vegas (with interim head coach Antonio Pierce). A lot of times there’s new energy. It’s hard to take everyone’s slate but generally speaking if you can wipe the slate clean and there’s some new energy and leadership it’s not uncommon to see that. Certainly we saw it with the Chargers last week and you’re seeing it with Vegas as well. Our focus is just this game with Los Angeles.”
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