When everyone saw the NFL schedule come out over the Summer, the Denver Broncos hosting the New York Giants in Week 7 was supposed to be another opportunity at revenge for Russell Wilson against the Broncos.
Wilson got a measure of revenge in 2024 when his team -- the Pittsburgh Steelers, at the time -- came to Denver and got a win. The only problem is, Wilson didn't play in the game.
Wilson was the starter for the Giants at the beginning of this season, but they pulled the plug for talented rookie Jaxson Dart quickly, and that turned out to be the right call. Even in a loss, Jaxson Dart accounted for four touchdowns against Denver's defense, and his talent was something Broncos head coach Sean Payton would have rather not dealt with. He would have rather seen Russ.
Sean Payton takes indirect shot at Russell Wilson after Broncos win vs. Giants
#Broncos HC Sean Payton said he recently told #Giants owner John Mara he was hoping they’d turn to Jaxson Dart at QB once their game passes.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 20, 2025
High praise for Dart … and a little shade toward Russell Wilson.
(🎥 @SNYGiants) pic.twitter.com/kG6ltDj0Rg
Payton says in this clip that he told New York Giants President John Mara that he was hopeful the debut of Jaxson Dart would have come "long" after the Giants' game against the Broncos.
The implication there is that Payton would have rather faced Russell Wilson, and at this stage of his career, we know there are obvious reasons for that.
The Broncos embarrassed Russell Wilson last year when they released him early in the offseason, taking on the single-largest dead cap hit for any individual player in NFL history. The release of Wilson was not well-received by other players around the league, and Wilson even went public with his side of a story with things that went down behind the scenes in Denver to try and save face a bit.
The relationship between the Broncos and Wilson is obviously not good, especially with Payton. That was a working relationship that ended in disaster with Wilson being benched for Jarrett Stidham late in the 2023 season before he was ultimately cut a few weeks after that.
As much as Wilson might want revenge against Payton and the Broncos, Payton might also want some revenge against Russ after the way things ended in that 2023 season with a loss to the Bailey Zappe-led Patriots on Christmas Eve.
Alas, there will be no Russell Wilson revenge game in Denver, at least not unless the Giants trade Wilson to some team that's still on Denver's schedule for the remainder of the year.