In quite the uninformed take, Bleacher Report claims that it was an overreaction for the Denver Broncos to move on from Russell Wilson. It's a shame, as not only is the logic poor, but it's flat-out wrong as well. Denver will take on an NFL-record $85 million in dead cap from moving on from Wilson, and they're dividing that dead cap across this season and in 2025.
They also owe Wilson about $40 million this year. After the 2025 NFL Season, both the salary they owe to Wilson and the dead cap will officially be off the books, so his contract goes bye-bye after next season. Well, Bleacher Report dubbed the Broncos moving on from Wilson as an overreaction, and had this to say about the move:
"Denver BroncosBrad Gagnon
Overreaction: It was time to move on from Russell Wilson.
Why: Two coaches and two offenses in two seasons and you bail on a future Hall of Famer who isn't far past his prime? You're now stuck with that bill for years to come?
The Broncos would have been better off riding it out with Wilson for at least one more season to see if he could mesh better with Sean Payton. He did show signs of that at times in 2023."
First off, the "years to come" part about the contract is simply wrong, as I just outlined. After next year, it's totally off the books, which is just two seasons, hardly "years to come" as Gagnon suggests. Secondly, he's wrong in his logic to suggest that he should have gotten another year to "mesh" with Sean Payton.
Simply put, what Sean Payton runs and what Russell Wilson does best are on opposite ends of the spectrum. And at this point, it's not even clear if Russell Wilson is a viable franchise quarterback anymore. He's not capable of throwing on time or throwing in the middle of the field, which are two foundational parts of a functioning offense.
People will see in time how easy the decision was to move on from Russell Wilson. Bo Nix is likely going to be the starting QB for the team in 2024. Nix is a much better fit for the offense than Russell Wilson, and we'll see that soon.
Overall, there was no sort of overreaction by the Denver Broncos to cut Russell Wilson. It was the right move.