The Denver Broncos saw Buffalo, Houston, and Indianapolis all win last weekend, which makes Sunday’s matchup matter for draft position, and finishing above .500. Despite being formally eliminated from playoff contention, a win would be good enough for second in the AFC West. The story is Jared Stidham starting at quarterback over Russell Wilson, which will be his second-consecutive start.
Denver finishes out a roller coaster of a campaign that saw them start 1-5, win the next five, and finally drop three of four to get to Sunday against the Raiders. We all remember when Miami hung 70 points on the Broncos in Week 3, and Detroit hanging 42 just three weeks ago is throwing more dirt on the grave of their season.
Wilson, 35, is currently in the second year of a seven-year contract after being traded prior to the start of the 2022 season. Seattle acquired four players and four draft picks for the nine-time Pro Bowler, and Super Bowl 38 champion. Undoubtedly Wilson is on his way to Canton, but to say the past few seasons have been rocky (no pun intended), Peyton Manning’s two seasons in Denver would like to have a chat.
At least Manning got a Super Bowl out of his time at Mile High…Wilson has a record of 11-19 as a starter. His numbers have been better in most aspects for 2023…better completion percentage (66.4% to 60.5% in 2022), better touchdown-to-interception ratio (26-8 to 16-11 in 2022), but the yards per game has slipped dramatically. In 2022, Wilson threw for 3,524 yards (234.93 average), which slipped to 3,070 this season (204.67 average).
His $22 million hit against the cap, and $124 million in guaranteed salary is not helping either. There was talk that Wilson was told he would be benched by Denver brass if he did not restructure the guaranteed money midway through this season. The Broncos have only $1.071 million in salary cap space, which only New England ($648K) is worse league-wide. That number gets far worse, as Denver currently forecasts to be $19.59M over the cap for 2024.
We can all see that Stidham, 27, is only making $3M for this season, and $7M for 2024. Next year, that number grows to $35.4M, and $55.4 in 2025, which would be a potential out in the five-year contract extension Wilson signed in September 2022.
The idea that Seattle won the trade could be laughable as well, until you look at the players involved. For the active players, Seattle ended up with one player suspended indefinitely by the NFL for gambling (Eyioma Uwazurike), two backups, and a third who helped get Cleveland to the playoffs (Shelby Harris). The players involved with the four draft picks turned into a 2023 Pro Bowler (Devon Witherspoon), two starters (T Charles Cross and DE Boye Mafe), and a promising young linebacker (Derick Hall).
If Denver cuts bait from Wilson after this season, does Cleveland possibly look to do the same with Deshaun Watson, especially after the play of Joe Flacco the past month? Does Baltimore need to take a look at Lamar Jackson’s contract with another early playoff exit later this month? Does Dallas start to make a contingency plan to move on from Dak Prescott?
Just over a year ago, the AFC was the most exciting division in football with the four quarterbacks scheduled to start (Patrick Mahomes, Derek Carr, Justin Herbert, and Wilson). The division turned into easily the most dysfunctional in the NFL, as the Chiefs appear to not be the dominant force going into the playoffs for the first time this decade.
-JC24
Just over a year ago, the AFC was the most exciting division in football with the four quarterbacks scheduled to start (Patrick Mahomes, Derek Carr, Justin Herbert, and Wilson). The division turned into easily the most dysfunctional in the NFL, as the Chiefs appear to not be the dominant force going into the playoffs for the first time this decade.
-JC24