Through six games, both Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos look awful. Even if Wilson is part of the issue, the team is stuck with him for a while. The mega contract extension that he signed a few weeks ago is tying him to Denver for a little while. Contractually, there is no way for the Broncos to get out of it if Wilson is indeed washed.
I think this is all up for debate. Some may think that Nathaniel Hackett is mostly to blame, but others might think that Russell Wilson is mostly to blame. I do think they each get a share of it, but most of it has to fall on Hackett.
The Denver Broncos have made their bed with Russell Wilson
Russell Wilson has missed some open receivers for the Broncos but also has made some unbelievable plays. It’s hard to say at this moment in time whether or not Wilson is “washed” like some are saying, but I guess they have an argument right now.
However, Russell Wilson is going to be on the Denver Broncos for a little while. If he is indeed this issue, Denver doesn’t really have an easy way out of this. His contract, one of the richest for QBs in NFL history, does not allow the Broncos to move off of him until at least 2025, where, according to overthecap.com, the Broncos could designate him as a post-June 1st cut and save $37 million against the salary cap, but this would come with $18.4 million of dead money.
Between the Broncos being able to trade or cut Wilson before or after the June 1st date, his dead cap number does not decrease until 2027, when it lowers to $8.4 million. So, according to my eyes, the Broncos are stuck with Wilson for the next three years, at least, but he’ll likely be in Denver in 2023, 2024, and 2025 at least, instead of jumping ship after 2024.
His contract details can be viewed here.
The future timeline for the Broncos is a bit uncertain. Nathaniel Hackett is likely getting fired at the end of the season or sometime in the future before the 2022 season ends. This would then allow the Broncos to bring in a new head coach for 2023, and one would have to figure that the second year of that tenure in 2024 would be the “year” for Denver to chase a ring.
This all depends on who the team would hire, though. If, let’s say, Dan Quinn was hired for 2023, you could realistically say that the team’s clock is now officially ticking beginning in 2023 when Wilson enters his age-35 season.
Broncos spiraling out of control and Nathaniel Hackett’s seat is scorching
The Denver Broncos are spiraling out of control with their fourth loss of the season. Head coach Nathaniel Hackett is on a scorching hot seat.
If George Paton were to opt for another first-time head coach, I don’t think that clock would start to tick until 2024. There is so much variance in this scenario to me. But looking at the big picture, I think we can expect Russell Wilson to be in Denver for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, at the very least.