Wilson holds all the cards in contract negotiations with Broncos
Apr 21, 2022, 6:36 AM
In the biggest trade of the offseason, the Denver Broncos stunned the NFL world by acquiring longtime Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in exchange for what amounted to a king’s ransom in draft picks (two first-round selections, two second-round selections and a swap of later-round picks) and players (former first-round tight end Noah Fant, defensive lineman Shelby Harris and quarterback Drew Lock; all of of them starters for the Broncos over the last two seasons). Nevertheless, in a league that’s increasingly more and more about high-level quarterback play above all else, the trade was universally seen as a win for the Broncos, who have watched a parade of mediocre-at-best signal-callers ramble in and out of Denver since Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning retired immediately after the Super Bowl 50-winning, 2015 campaign.
The seismic trade was forced by Wilson, who used no-trade clauses in his contract to essentially select the Broncos as his next team. Even before he was officially introduced as a Bronco, Wilson and his wife, Ciara, worked hard to ingratiate themselves into the Denver community. Thanks to a St. Patrick’s Day visit to Children’s Hospital, courtside seats at a Denver Nuggets game and throwing out the first pitch of the Colorado Rockies’ Opening Day game, Wilson — who also purchased a $25 million home in Cherry Hills last week — already feels like an indispensable part of the Denver sports fabric and the unquestioned star of the Broncos, who are still over four months away from playing a game that matters.
It’s also worth noting that Wilson’s contract expires after the 2023 season.
Only three years ago, Wilson signed a four-year, $140 million contract extension that made him — at the time — the highest-paid player in the NFL. And if he insisted on it, he could become so once again, because the Broncos simply can’t afford to tell Wilson “no.”
104.3 The Fan host Brandon Stokley believes this puts the team in a precarious position.
Broncos dropped the ball by not getting an extension done with Russell before the trade.They lost all of their leverage once they made the trade without an extension.Russell Wilson has all the leverage in the world now.Does he play nice or go for the biggest guaranteed contract https://t.co/8EUTjgSgiY
— Brandon Stokley (@bstokley14) April 20, 2022
Wilson is set to make $51 million over the next two seasons, and only three seasons removed from signing that then-record extension, those numbers look like “a drop in the bucket for what’s he about to make,” as Stokley explained.
He’s right. This spring, Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr signed a new deal averaging $40 million per season through 2025, and Wilson — by any measurement — is far more accomplished than the (somewhat underrated) Carr. NBC’s Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio suggested on Sunday that even that lofty number won’t come close to sealing a deal between Wilson and the Broncos.
“(Wilson’s agent) Mark Rodgers will scoff at the Carr deal. It would likely be a blunder for the Broncos to even mention it as a relevant data point to Wilson’s next contract. The starting point for Mark Rodgers on behalf of Russell Wilson won’t be Carr’s deal. It more likely will be Deshaun Watson‘s. Five years, $46 million per year, fully guaranteed — and go from there,” Florio explained. “With the cap on the verge of mushrooming, Rodgers could try to pull the Broncos across the final frontier of quarterback contracts. He could ask for a fixed percentage of the salary cap as Wilson’s annual compensation.”
That would put the player and the franchise in uncharted waters.
“If Wilson asks for, say, 20 percent of the total cap, he’d get a five-year payout of $254.18 million, an average of $50.8 million per year,” Florio continue. “The ending point will be the richest contract any player has ever signed in NFL history, especially given everything the Broncos gave up to get Wilson. The rest is just details. And here’s the most important detail — the longer the Broncos wait to do it, the more expensive it could get.”
Broncos general manager George Paton is certainly aware that he’ll be spending — big — in order to keep the 33-year-old Wilson in orange and blue until he’s closing in on 40. And if he were deterred by the prospect of those monumental numbers, he wouldn’t have made the trade, surrendering significant assets, both now and in the future, to acquire Wilson’s services.
That said, it’s entirely possible that Florio may be overestimating Wilson’s demands. He notes that Rodgers has exactly one client — Wilson — and that means that he’s likely to be more interested in making Wilson happy than by breaking the bank on this particular deal. Given that Wilson had a disappointing 2021 season, followed by a falling out with his coach and team that became so insurmountable that he forced his way to Denver, the expectations placed on the nine-time Pro Bowler will immediately be immense.
If Wilson, who’s consistently spoken about how he expects the Broncos to compete for Super Bowl titles in the near future, wants to give himself the best chance to do that, giving Denver more cap space — and therefore, flexibility — makes a lot of sense. Another Super Bowl win would make Wilson’s Hall-of-Fame credentials all but unimpeachable, and would easily justify this late-career shakeup. So why not take less so Paton and the Broncos can help him more? The notion’s at least plausible.
Wilson’s already fully committed to the Broncos and Denver; he’s moving his entire family to Colorado and has given no sign that there’s anywhere else that he’d even consider playing in the future. He’s all-in, and so is Paton, who’s pushed all his chips into the center of the table already. A deal will get done, likely sometime after a new Broncos owner can sign off on it this summer, but Stokley’s right: the final terms won’t truly be up to him or her. Wilson has all the leverage, and the Broncos know that they can’t risk their already sizable investment by pushing back with any force.
Paton and the Broncos are pot-committed and ready to let Russ cook. Before they do, however, they’ll have to pass him a blank check — and simply wait to see what he writes on it.
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