The Denver Broncos made the announcement on Monday that they'd be releasing Russell Wilson after two years of less-than-ideal play. Wilson's release means that the Broncos will be taking on $85 million in dead money over the next two years but it was clearly a move that the team felt was necessary to make.
Ryan McFadden, the Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post, appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday to discuss the Wilson release and why it made sense for the Broncos. He mentioned that it was obvious as the season went on that Wilson and Sean Payton never meshed and Payton knew that Wilson was not his franchise quarterback.
"As the season progressed you could tell Sean Payton and Russell Wilson never gelled... Denver knows they're going to take a huge cap hit in doing this but it's more of Payton saying this is not going to be my guy for the foreseeable future."
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) March 5, 2024
-@RyanMcFadden_ #Broncos pic.twitter.com/n8KyXuhVUf
Sean Payton didn't think Russell Wilson wasn't the answer at QB
The Broncos traded for Wilson in the 2022 offseason and had also hired Nathaniel Hackett as their head coach that same offseason. Hackett turned out to be a terrible head coach and Wilson was downright awful during that time. In 2023, the Broncos swung for the fences and traded for former Saints head coach Sean Payton, who at the beginning of his tenure said he could fix Wilson's issues from the year before.
To his credit, Wilson did play better in 2023. He threw for 10 more touchdowns (26) than he did the year before and threw three less picks (8) than he did in 2022. At the end of the day, however, the problem was clearly that Payton didn't see the Broncos going where they need to go with Wilson at the helm and that's why they're moving on from him despite all of the money they have to eat.
Payton had Drew Brees as his quarterback for nearly his entire Saints tenure and we saw how good the Saints were during that time. Aside from a handful of 7-9 campaigns, the Saints were nearly always playoff contenders with Brees in town. If Payton can find his next Brees this offseason, the Broncos have a shot to become a frequent playoff team but that clock starts ticking now. How long will the Broncos give Payton to find the next franchise signal-caller?