Broncos Bench Russell Wilson For Jarrett Stidham

Broncos Bench Russell Wilson For Jarrett Stidham

The Denver Broncos are officially moving on from Russell Wilson. We’ve known this move was coming for a while. Today is just the day that it’s actually official. Denver has benched Wilson and will give the reigns to Jarrett Stidham for the remainder of the season.

The NFL Network team was the first to report the news here.

“The Denver Broncos are benching quarterback Russell Wilson for the remaining two games of the 2023 season to preserve financial flexibility for the team this offseason, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday, per sources.”

Nobody should be overly surprised by this move. This was always going to be a one-year trial run with Sean Payton getting the job in Denver. It’s the exact same move that the Raiders made with Derek Carr a year ago. Moving on from Wilson would have become complicated if he were to get injured in the final two games of the season. Cutting bait now allows Denver to get out ahead of it. 

The funniest part is Stidham replaced Carr with the Raiders last year. He will now do the same in Denver with Wilson. If you need a quarterback to come in a replace a highly paid starter that’s going to get released, Stidham is your guy!

Denver really has two options here now that they’ve made this decision.

The Spotrac guy did a nice job breaking that down so I’ll just attach that below.

A Pre March 17th release for Russell Wilson would mean $85M of dead cap ($39M cash) in 2024.

Designating him a Post June 1st release means a $35.4M hit in 2024 ($39M cash), & a $49.6M dead cap hit for 2025.

Either way – this would be an unprecedented release.

— Spotrac (@spotrac) December 27, 2023

I Think I’ve Lost All Respect For Russell Wilson

It’s pretty safe to say that Seattle won the Russell Wilson trade. The aftermath of the trade for Denver is brutal. Seattle will end up acquiring a haul.

• QB Drew Lock
• DT Shelby Harris
• TE Noah Fant
• 2022 first-round pick (OT Charles Cross, Mississippi State)
• 2022 second-round pick (OLB Boye Mafe, Minnesota)
• 2022 fifth-round pick (OLB Tyreke Smith, Ohio State)
• 2023 first-round pick (CB Devon Witherspoon, Illinois)
• 2023 second-round pick (EDGE Derick Hall, Auburn)

Oh, and one more thing. What happened to first-year playoffs, Sean? Can we just admit you were a dope for taking this job? All you had to do was wait one year and we could have formed an unstoppable partnership. Now look at you. Miserable and mediocre. Way to go, buddy!

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