Originally Posted by Quesadilla Joe:
If Andy Reid can turn Alex Smith into a Pro Bowler, Sean Payton can turn Russ back into a HOF’er
Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil on if #Broncos first-year coach Sean Payton can turn around QB Russell Wilson: "If he can't do it, it can't be done." More Vermeil on Payton. "I have tremendous respect for him. To me, he and Andy Reid are the offensive coaches of the decade."
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
It's a really weird decision to bench your quarterback when you still have a chance at the playoffs. I know it's a small chance, but giving up sends a really bad message. Rusty isn't the biggest problem on that team (this year).
I think ownership may have made the decision. Noticed a couple games back that Sean inexplicably chose to punt on a 4th and short on the other side of the 50, when he historically would've gone for it. And he punted in similar situations every time after that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
Sources to
@BleacherReport
: The #Broncos threatened to bench Russell Wilson weeks ago if he didn’t remove his injury guarantees.
Russell Wilson’s benching by the Broncos today is solely financially related and has been in the works for weeks, per multiple sources with direct access to the situation.
The Broncos approached Wilson two days after their October 29 upset win over the Kansas City Chiefs and told him he would be made inactive for the rest of the season if he did not adjust his contract and defer the injury guarantee trigger date that he has for 2025. Wilson has $37 million in injury guarantees for 2025 that will become guaranteed no matter what on the fifth day of the 2024 league year in March.
At that time, Wilson was coming off a 3-touchdown game in the win over the Chiefs and was starting to experience the type of success he envisioned following a challenging first year in Denver. The threat however, “shocked him,” and the two sides got into a major dispute on how to proceed.
The issue remained, but the Broncos stuck with Wilson as the team strung together primetime wins over the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings, followed by another win over the Cleveland Browns, one of the league’s best defenses.
Wilson, 35, has started all 15 games this season and has completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 3,070 yards with 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
When the threat was made by the Broncos, the team, Wilson's camp, the NFLPA, and another unknown party were involved in negotiations that ended with no change in Wilson’s contract
And it all came crashing down today when Sean Payton and other top-level members of Denver’s organization decided to go ahead with the plan they’ve had for weeks.
So do the broncos think that Rusty will fake an injury at the end of the season to get paid in case they cut him? That's a pretty radical accusation against your starting quarterback.
Have we ever seen a team bench a player because of a contract clause? That's a concerning precedent. I think there have been accusations in the past of teams not giving a guy carries or receptions to keep him from getting incentives, but those have always been unproven. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
So do the broncos think that Rusty will fake an injury at the end of the season to get paid in case they cut him? That's a pretty radical accusation against your starting quarterback.
Have we ever seen a team bench a player because of a contract clause? That's a concerning precedent. I think there have been accusations in the past of teams not giving a guy carries or receptions to keep him from getting incentives, but those have always been unproven.
It's becoming pretty commonplace in our very own division. Raiders did it to Carr just last year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DRM08:
So Denver will be paying Russell $30+ million in 2024 to play for someone else. That's pretty funny.
I would think he'll still be on the Broncos. May even be the starter. Doesn't look to me like they can realistically get rid of him until after 2025. Even then it's gonna really hurt. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DRM08:
So Denver will be paying Russell $30+ million in 2024 to play for someone else. That's pretty funny.
Pretty sure that was always the plan. Paton never liked Russ. Russ doesn't fit his scheme at all. To his credit, he worked around Russ' failings as much as he could, and Wilson went from the 44th best QB in 2022 to whatever he is now (7th in Passer Rating 2023?). But Russ was always probably going to be cut after this season, DEN would pay $30+ million to do it, because 2024 was the earliest they could cut him with the least burden, iirc. The only way Russ was going to stay was if he somehow transformed himself into a pocket passer with elite timing in 2023. Call it a 1% chance. [Reply]
