The Dallas Cowboys trading away Micah Parsons makes the Denver Broncos biggest trade look like nothing. The Broncos shocked the NFL world back in the 2022 NFL Season and swung a major trade for Russell Wilson.
At the time, it felt like one of the biggest gambles in the history of the NFL, and in typical pre-Sean Payton, post-Peyton Manning Broncos fashion, it did not work out at all. After just two years with the team, Denver cut ties, but the rest is history.
The Broncos have somehow gotten out of this mess and are totally done with the Russell Wilson era, officially, after the 2025 NFL Season when the rest of the dead cap leaves their books. Well, after the major Micah Parsons trade, the Broncos trade for Russell Wilson feels quite small.
The Russell Wilson trade is a lot easier to digest now
Here are the full terms of the Russell Wilson trade:
Broncos received:
Russell Wilson
2022 4th Round Pick
Seahawks received:
Drew Lock
Shelby Harris
Noah Fant
2022 1st Pick
2022 2nd Round Pick
2022 5th Round PIck
2023 1st Round Pick
2023 2nd Round Pick
This does seem like quite the haul, but it was honestly a fair package for both parties given who the Broncos thought they were getting. To be fair to GM George Paton, he thought he was trading for a top-5 quarterback still in his prime, as Wilson was coming off of a few very strong years in Seattle.
Most Broncos fans did not take issue with the trade at all and honestly loved the move. And I could go a step further and say that a plethora of other GMs in the NFL would have made that same deal. The Cowboys traded Micah Parsons for a pair of first-round picks in 2026 and 2027, and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who is almost 30 years old and is on the decline.
For a future Hall of Fame player and a top-tier EDGE rusher in the NFL, the Cowboys got absolutely fleeced, and they should be ashamed, but it's another small win for the Denver Broncos, as that many more people have forgotten about the Russell Wilson fiasco.