The Denver Broncos could truly be special in the 2026 NFL Season. Not only was the team on the doorstep of the Super Bowl, and likely would have made it had Bo Nix been healthy, but the team is getting a ton of financial relief as well.
After two years and nearly $90 million of dead cap, the Denver Broncos will finally be free of Russell Wilson's contract. It's official - the Russell Wilson era is over. The Broncos approached this smartly - they ripped the Band-Aid off and absorbed the larger $52 million charge in 2024 and ate up the rest this year.
Denver is now set to embark on what could be a very prolific, aggressive offseason in terms of stacking as much talent as possible, and Sean Payton knows this better than anyone. Payton has a huge say on the roster, so with this financial relief, he has to be excited.
Sean Payton doesn't mince words when talking about Russell Wilson's dead cap
Here is some of what Sean Payton said about Russell Wilson's dead cap finally coming off the books for the Denver Broncos. It was, in total, an $85 million dead cap charge, which was spread out across the 2024 and 2025 seasons:
Sean Payton believes the Broncos being free of a lot of dead cap is "significant": "Proud of the way everyone else handled it and looked at developing young players and didn't use it as a built in excuse"
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) January 27, 2026
The other layer to this is the end part of Payton's quote - with the financial situation Denver was in during the 2024 and 2025, the team had to prioritize drafting and developing players, as they simply could not go out in the open market and 'buy' talent.
Sure, they still had financial resources to do this a little bit, but the first order of business was getting that young QB in the building and developing him. But other young players were brought in like Troy Franklin and Jonah Elliss from that same class who are showing signs of growth.
Other younger players like Nik Bonitto and Quinn Meinerz took strides as well, and it all kind of lined up nicely, as, with the team taking on the lesser dead cap charge this year, they had enough flexibility to pay some of the younger players who were due for extensions.
All in all, the Broncos handled the dead cap situation nicely, and the front office is essentially set to be rewarded by doing that with a blank slate in 2026 and the ability to add whatever talent is necessary to take this roster to another level.