Hi Parker, I know Russell Wilson is likely going to get cut but here’s a thought. What about keeping Wilson for another season while the Broncos bring along a rookie QB? I would imagine he’ll play slightly better in his second year in the offense and it would allow a rookie QB time to learn Payton’s offense. If Denver did that, what would the cap hit be following next season? Thanks.
Hey Brandon, thanks for writing in and getting us going this week. It’s not a bad thought, but the problem is the same as it’s been this entire time. Actually, the issue is twofold.
Really, though, the sticking point from the start has been Wilson’s 2025 money, $37 million of which becomes guaranteed on March 17 if he’s on the roster.
That means if nothing changed with Wilson’s contract and he played in front of a young starter next year, his dead money number a year from now would actually tick up to $86.6 million. That’s going to end up being a slightly lower percentage of cap because the cap will keep rising. Rudimentary, but if we use the same roughly 8% annual increase to the cap over the next two years, cutting Wilson this offseason costs Denver $85 million, or about 16.9% of its total cap space over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. A year from now, $86.6 million equates to about 15.9% of projected cap space between 2025 and 2026. Slightly less, to be sure, but it also means he’d count a total $122 million over the next three seasons on Denver’s cap for maybe another full year of starting or maybe a partial season before a young player takes over.
