The Denver Broncos And Sean Payton Did Russell Wilson Dirty

Russell Wilson’s time with the Denver Broncos has been the worst of his career.

After being traded to Denver in March 2022, Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million extension. Three months later, the team was sold to Walmart heir Rob Walton and a group that included business executive Mellody Hobson and eventually former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and F1 star Lewis Hamilton.

These moves energized a fan base eager for a return to its once proud and winning ways. The team’s last winning season was in 2016, a year after Denver, led by Peyton Manning and Von Miller, won Super Bowl 50.

Armed with a new ownership group and another Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Broncos country was ready to add a fourth Lombardi Trophy to its collection.

But then 2022 and Nathaniel Hackett happened.

The Hackett Effect

Suddenly, Russell Wilson looked pedestrian. Analysts said he regressed while doubters claimed he was never that good. Yet the most obvious fact to those of us who understand football was that Hackett’s offense was destroying the greatness of Russell Wilson, enabling the critiques of him to flourish.

To his credit, Russ never complained or pointed fingers.

Mercifully, Hackett was fired after 15 games, the season ended and Sean Payton was called out of retirement to become the team’s new head coach that February.

The hope was Payton would bring his genius offensive mind to Denver and revive Russ’ great career.

The problem was that Payton became offensive, period.

First, he blasted Hackett and the Broncos organization in a July 2023 interview with USA Today Sports.

“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much (expletive) time trying to win the offseason – the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.”

Then he addressed Russ’ situation under Hackett, and he delivered haymakers with each sentence.

“That wasn’t his fault,” Payton said of Wilson. “That was the parents who allowed it. That’s not an incrimination on him, but an incrimination on the head coach, the GM (George Paton), the president (Damani Leech) and everybody else who watched it all happen.

“There’s so much dirt around that,” he continued. “A lot of people had dirt on their hands. It wasn’t just Russell. He didn’t just flip. He still has it. This B.S. that he hit a wall? Shoot, they couldn’t get a play in. They were 29th in the league in pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball.

“[But] everybody’s got a little stink on their hands. It’s not just Russell. It was a (poor) offensive line. It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL. That’s how bad it was.”

Payton was immediately ripped for his verbal assault and he apologized.

Yet Payton made it clear that Wilson was wronged and that he was going to restore Russ to greatness.

Oh, how quickly things change in a few months.

The Sean Payton Backtrack

After initially standing up for his quarterback this summer, Payton’s tone began to change.

First was the “Russ has gotta be sharper with getting the play out,” comment about his QB early in the season.

Last week, Payton scapegoated Russell Wilson for the team’s recent stumble after a five-game winning streak by benching him in favor of four-year player Jarrett Stidham and his 14 games of NFL experience.

“We need a spark. We need something right now. We’ll handle the long-term when we get there,” said Payton about turning to Stidham and his career stat line of 77-131, 926 yards with 6 TDs and 7 INTs.

After starting the season 1-5, Russ helped lead the team to a five-game winning streak where he threw for 1,008 yards with 8 TDs and 0 INTs. In the four subsequent games, Denver went 1-3 and Russ threw for 871 yards with 6 TDs and 4 INTs.

If you take out the year under Hackett, Russell’s 2023 season is similar to his career stats in Seattle.

In 15 games this season, Russ has thrown for 3,070 yards (204.6 ypg), 26 TDs and 8 INTs while completing 66.4% of his passes.

During his 10 years in Seattle, he averaged 239.6 ypg, 29.2 TDs, 8.7 INTs and 65%, respectively.

Even more interesting are his 2023 stats compared to his Super Bowl years in 2013 and 2014.

In 2013, he threw for 3,357 yards with 26 TDs and 9 INTs with a completion rate of 63.1%.

In 2014, his stat line read 3,475, 20, 7 and 63.1%, respectively.

So in Denver, Wilson has been relatively on par with his Seattle career, which is good.

But the Broncos obviously saw something else, and that turned out to be the money it had invested in Wilson. So it went on the offensive and threatened to bench him if he didn’t adjust his contract regarding the $37 million contract for the 2025 season. That threat was confirmed by Wilson over the weekend after Payton revealed he was being benched.

“We beat the Chiefs (on Oct. 29). They came up to me at the beginning of the bye week — Monday or Tuesday — and told me that if I didn’t change my contract, my injury guarantee, that I’d be benched for the rest of the year,” said Wilson.

That’s a stunning reveal from a player who normally stays mum on controversy, but this situation is different.

Russ didn’t face it alone as the NFLPA stepped in and informed the team that if it decided to “follow through on the Club’s threat, the Club will violate, among other things, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Mr. Wilson’s Player Contract and New York law.”

While he wasn’t benched and played the next seven games, Payton decided to make a change and claimed he was “not privy” to the discussions between the team and Wilson about his contract.

For a head coach who reportedly makes roughly $18 million a year to claim to not be aware of discussions involving the benching of your starting quarterback sounds questionable, but this entire situation is shady so it’s par for the course.

Russ’ Benching and His Future

On Sunday, the Broncos beat a hapless Chargers team without Justin Herbert and Joey Bosa.

But thanks to horrendous tackling by the Chargers on Lil’Jordan Humphrey’s 54-yard TD catch and run and not turning the ball over, Stidham did nothing that Russ could not or has not done before. He had 224 passing yards (170 without Humphrey’s catch) and 1 TD in the 16-9 victory. Prior to yesterday’s game, the Broncos had failed to score 16 or more points only twice.

If this was the spark Payton was seeking, Broncos Nation is facing more years of disappointment.

Denver has officially been eliminated from playoff contention and faces a tough decision about Russ’ future.

If the team cuts him this offseason, which many feel they will do, they will incur an $85 million dead cap hit. That, according to The Athletic, would be an NFL record for a single player. CBS Sports notes that if “they designate Wilson as a post-June 1 release, they can divide that hit over the 2024 season ($35.4 million) and 2025 season ($49.6 million),” but it will still be a major financial burden to carry.  

It’s a shame to see what’s been done to a great quarterback. Russell Wilson deserves better. He deserves to be celebrated as a great quarterback who should have won two Super Bowls (thanks Pete Carroll), a Walter Payton Man of the Year Award winner and a selfless player who called an audible at the end of a game to help a teammate receive a $100,000 performance bonus.

Regardless of what happens next, one thing is for sure.

The Denver Broncos and Sean Payton did Russell Wilson dirty, and everyone knows it now.