BRONCOS BENCH QB RUSSELL WILSON, BACKUP JARRETT STIDHAM SET TO START
For the second consecutive year, an AFC West team is benching its starting quarterback over its final two regular season games for QB Jarrett Stidham. Denver Broncos Head Coach Sean Payton told reporters on Wednesday that he’s benching nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson in Week 17 and Week 18 against the Chargers and the Raiders.
Stidham, who has been Wilson’s backup all year, will start in his place over the next couple of games. A player that’s all too familiar with the AFC West, Stidham also took over the starting job from Las Vegas Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr in the last two weeks of the season last year, just two months before Carr was released by the team. The 27-year-old played well in his first start for the Raiders, and completed 23 of 34 attempted passes for 365 passing yards and 3 touchdowns last year, a performance that head coach Sean Payton and the Broncos will hope to get from him again this year.
Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz reported on Wednesday that the decision to bench Wilson is strictly financial and positions Denver with the financial flexibility needed to have a successful offseason. Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million contract extension last year with $165 million in total guarantees. Broncos head coach Sean Payton reiterated, however, that the benching is a football decision.
“This is about now,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters on Wednesday. “This is about trying to get our eighth win. And we’ll go from there… We’re desperately trying to win. Sure in our game today, there are economics and other things. But the number one thing, is to get a spark offensively.”
Wilson has a ton of guaranteed money due to him in his contract with the Broncos, including $39 million total guaranteed in 2024 and a $37 million injury guarantee for 2025 that will become fully vested on the fifth day of the 2024 league year in March.
As per Jordan Schultz, the Broncos threatened to bench Russell Wilson weeks ago if he didn’t remove his injury guarantees and made the decision solely on financial implications. Denver approached Wilson two days after their October 29th upset of the Kansas City Chiefs and told him he’d be inactive for the rest of the year if he didn’t adjust his contract and defer the injury trigger date he has for 2025.
Wilson was apparently “shocked” by the threat from the organization as he was coming off of a 3-touchdown game in the win over the division leaders. Both parties got into a dispute on how to proceed and the issue has remained since then.
Denver Broncos insider Troy Renck has since reported that the organization wanted to push back Wilson’s injury guarantee date with the intention to have Wilson compete for the starting job in training camp next year without guaranteeing him the 2025 money. Ultimately, it didn’t make sense for Wilson to revise or adjust his contract.
The Broncos stuck it out with Wilson over the next three consecutive wins at Buffalo, at home against Minnesota and Cleveland, but results of three losses in four games including last week’s Primetime home loss to the New England Patriots prompted Sean Payton and the front office to go ahead with the plan they’ve had for weeks. The loss on Thursday night was a painful one for the Broncos who are looking to clinch a playoff spot this season. Denver is second in its division at 7-8 and currently holds the 12th seed in the AFC.
While the team hasn’t played particularly well in their past four games, Wilson has actually had an improved performance all throughout this year compared to 2022. The former Super Bowl champion has the seventh-highest passer rating (98) among all quarterbacks in the league, and has completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 3,070 yards with 26 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Wilson has also accounted for a staggering 29 of the Broncos’ 33 touchdowns this season, including an additional team-leading 3 scores on the ground.
The former Seattle Seahawk has a no-trade clause in his contract which would mean the most likely scenario is that the Broncos end up cutting the All-Pro quarterback, freeing him to sign with any team, rather than agree to a reduced deal to stay in Denver. The decision to move on from Wilson, however, will cost the Broncos a lot and the team will take on up to $85 million in dead money, the most ever in NFL history, and will complicate roster building over the next two years.
Wilson responded to the news of his benching on X by simply writing, “God’s got me. Looking forward to what’s next.”
As for the Denver Broncos, the team now marches forward the rest of the way with Stidham, who the Broncos were very quick to sign in free agency, giving him a two-year, $10 million deal. Wilson now slides back to the bench and will be Stidham’s no.2 as the Broncos continue to hold on hope that a push for the playoffs in the backend of the season could still happen. Denver currently has a 1.4% chance to make the postseason.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Drug Enforcement Administration. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.