The price is finally right for Russell Wilson

The Broncos are stuck with a massive salary cap hit after they release the 35-year-old QB.

Nobody really wants a pre-owned quarterback. You really never know where it’s been. Especially when it’s 35 years old, and its previous owner threatened to strip it for parts.

But when Russell Wilson was dumped onto the lot Monday, he was priced to go. A manager’s special, as it were. It’s possible to get a one-year lease on this deceptively efficient model for $1.3 million or so. He won’t be available long.

The lasting image of Wilson’s 2023 season came at Detroit, in his final start for Denver. He couldn’t redeem a trip to the end zone, and when he came to the bench, coach Sean Payton ripped him from helmet to footgear, as if Wilson were a teenager who had burned down the backyard shed. This was Wilson’s second year in Denver and Payton’s first, and Denver wasn’t making the playoffs, and Payton doesn’t believe in guilt by association. He put the blame on Wilson, and the Broncos released Wilson at a frightful cost, and now the guy who beat Denver in Super Bowl 48, on behalf of Seattle, will become a NFL’s general manager’s dream: A quarterback from Dollar General.

Those who watched Baker Mayfield and Joe Flacco get to the playoffs this season know that a quarterback’s expiration date means little. Wilson is not what he was in Seattle. He also isn’t what you thought he was last season. Far better, in fact. He threw 26 touchdown passes for Denver and only eight interceptions, and he had four fourth-quarter comebacks, tied for tops in the NFL. His completion percentage of 66.4 percent was the third-best in his 12 seasons.
He wasn’t great, but you can’t prove it by Courtland Sutton, the receiver who went from two touchdowns in Wilson’s first season to 10 in 2023. As soon as Denver dropped the hammer on Monday, the cyberworld was humming over Wilson’s next destination, and how it might affect the NFL draft.
There could be room at the inn for Wilson in Atlanta, which might have thought about a quarterback with the No. 8 pick in the first round. The other rumor is that the Falcons will end up with either Chicago’s Justin Fields, who would be available because Caleb Williams is the logical No. 1 pick for the Bears, or Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins. But Wilson’s minimal price tag stops all GMs in mid-dial. With the salary cap escalating anyway, the Falcons (or anyone else) could take some big free-agent swings at other positions.
The Raiders’ quarterback is the promising but unproven Aidan O’Connell. The Steelers’ quarterbacks are the gallant Kenny Pickett and the reinvigorated Mason Rudolph, neither of which measures up to Wilson at his best. Even New England, which has the No. 3 pick and is in position to take either Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels or North Carolina’s Drake Maye, would be irresponsible if it didn’t take a look. Kick the tires if you must, but gently.
Wilson was a model citizen in Seattle, but sometimes models don’t look the same when the makeup comes off. He got tired of picking himself up off the ground, although he was also sacked 100 times in two Denver seasons. He also wanted Pete Carroll to let him freewheel, but the Seahawks’ coach preferred to put the ball in younger, stronger hands. Wilson has no desire, or capacity, to change his style and become a drop-back, play-action QB. He beat people by optioning and bootlegging and finding receivers downfield. He can’t dodge the traffic like that anymore, and as his legs continue to age, the edge rushers continue to grow wings.
Along the way there were suspicions that Wilson was too concerned with individual hardware, and that he really wasn’t the impeccable diplomat and humanitarian that he seemed. Few of those complaints were heard in Denver, and his teammates vouched for his good-fella qualities.
So Wilson might or might not be an upgrade for teams trying to escape the NFL’s Muddy Middle. The real story here is how Denver, which went 8-9 last season and 5-12 in Wilson’s first year, has basically thrown itself down the river in their lust to get a celebrity quarterback.
When we talk about Wilson being cheap, don’t confuse it with Wilson being poor. He will be getting $37 million not to play for Denver. That was part of the five-year, $246 million deal that Wilson signed after Seattle traded him. The NFL salary cap structure has little tolerance for teams that get silly with salaries. The Broncos released Wilson to avoid guaranteeing him another $37 million, his 2025 salary. But over the next two years, they’ll have to bear a record $85 million “cap charge” for a player who might wind up opposing them on a given Sunday. That’s not only a record cap hit, it’s $44.5 million higher than the second-biggest cap hit, which was the price Atlanta paid for ridding itself of Matt Ryan.
It gets worse. Denver gave Seattle the equivalent of a Tower of Treats from Harry and David to get Wilson. It packaged quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant and linebacker Shelby Harris, but that wasn’t the tasty stuff.  Seattle also got five draft picks.

The No. 9 pick in the 2022 draft became starting tackle Charles Cross. The second round pick became linebacker Boye Mafe, who had nine sacks last year. 
In 2023, Seattle unwrapped the gift of the No. 5 pick in the draft and chose cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who had a nice rookie year. It also got a second-round pick and used it on linebacker Derick Hall, a useful backup on the way to something more.

It must be pointed out that Seattle missed the playoffs last year, finished 9-8, and watched management kick Carroll upstairs in order to hire Baltimore defensive coordinator Michael Macdonald.
But the Seahawks have a clearer path to respectability than do the Broncos, with all that dead money weighing down their saddle like an anvil. After Peyton Manning helped them win a Super Bowl after the 2014 season, they tried Lock, Flacco, Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Case Keenum, Brandon Allen, Teddy Bridgewater, Jeff Driskel and Brett Rypien and even had calls out for Frank Tripucka and Marlin Briscoe. After all those lemons, they persuaded themselves that Russell Wilson was still a Ferrari. The problem with the Used Quarterback Lot is that they don’t take insurance.