Not even 2 full years after Seahawks traded him, Broncos decide to cut Russell Wilson
Russell Wilson just learned.
Be careful what you wish for.
Not even two full years ago, Wilson convinced the Seahawks they must trade the only quarterback who’s won Seattle a Super Bowl to Denver. Wilson didn’t feel the best chance to further his legacy was in Seattle. So the Seahawks traded him. The mammoth deal went down on March 8, 2022.
The Broncos gave the Seahawks three veteran players, plus two first-round draft choices, two second-round picks and a fifth-round selection: eight players in all. Denver then gave Wilson a $254 million contract.
Wilson gave Denver an 11-19 record in two seasons as its starting quarterback. The Broncos paid him $124 million in cash for that.
Denver’s trade plus contract for him are now two of the worst deals in recent NFL history.
Four days short of two years after he completed the mammoth trade with Seahawks general manager John Schneider to get Wilson, Broncos GM George Paton said Monday Denver is releasing the 35-year-old quarterback.
“We spoke to Russell Wilson today to inform him of his release after the start of the league year (March 13),” Paton and Broncos head coach Sean Payton wrote in a statement Denver’s team issued Monday. “On behalf of the Broncos, we thank Russell for his dedication and his contributions to our team and community while wishing him the best as he continues his career.”
The Broncos felt compelled to release Wilson before March 17. That’s when Denver would have guaranteed him $37 million for 2025, per the contract he signed after his trade from Seattle.
Wilson’s $17 million base salary is already guaranteed for 2024.
How much did the Broncos no longer want Wilson after two bad seasons with him?
Wilson’s five-year contract with Denver hasn’t even started yet. His last two seasons he played under the end of the four-year, $140 million contract he signed with the Seahawks before the 2019 season.
The Broncos remain on the hook for $39 million in cash to Wilson, plus $85 million in salary-cap charges this year and next.
The Broncos have decided to pay and absorb that rather than have Wilson as their starting quarterback any longer.
Wilson posted online his goodbye to Denver on Monday after the Broncos’ announcement. He headlined it, “Thank You Broncos Country.”
“This city will always hold a special place in my heart,” Wilson wrote, in part, in his 10-paragraph goodbye.
“Our family grew here, we made countless memories and friendships, and formed relationships that will last a lifetime....
“Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
“God’s got me.
“I’m excited for what’s next.”
What’s next are multiple NFL teams — Minnesota, Las Vegas, New England, Washington, perhaps Pittsburgh — in need of quarterbacks now considering the potential of signing Wilson to a minimum-salary contract of just over $1 million in base pay. That’s with Denver already owing him $39 million for 2024.
Last week at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, Paton and Payton strongly hinted the Broncos would be releasing Wilson within two weeks. Payton was already talking about the trickiness of drafting a quarterback in the first round, and how his team hoped to be better in picking their next QB.
Meanwhile Geno Smith, Wilson’s previous backup in Seattle who replaced him upon the Wilson trade, has been selected for two Pro Bowls in his two seasons as the Seahawks’ starter. The Seahawks gave Smith a three-year, $75 million extension in the spring of 2023, following his first season replacing Wilson.
And that’s only the beginning of how lopsided the Wilson trade has proven to be for the Seahawks.
The 10 players in the Russell Wilson trade
Including Wilson, there were 10 players involved in the blockbuster Seahawks-Broncos trade.
The Seahawks gave Denver Wilson plus a fourth-round choice in the 2022 draft. That for the Broncos became Eyioma Uwazurike, a defensive lineman from Iowa State. In 2022, the same year Uwazurike had an underwhelming rookie season while playing only eight of Denver’s 17 games, Wilson had statistically the worst season of his 12-year NFL career.
Then in July 2023, the league suspended Uwazurike indefinitely, for gambling. He didn’t play a game in 2023.
Wilson rebounded from his 2022 totals of 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions to 26 touchdowns with eight interceptions. But the Broncos again had a losing record.
It got so bad they benched Wilson for two games late in the season when, Wilson and the league’s players’ union said, he refused to waive a clause guaranteeing him the $37 million for 2025. The Broncos didn’t want him to get hurt in those final two games of last season then not be able to pass a physical this month, which would have kept them from releasing him and triggered the $37 million guarantee for 2025.
The Broncos traded their former starting quarterback Drew Lock to Seattle, plus Denver’s 2019 first-round draft pick and tight end Noah Fant and defensive tackle Shelby Harris.
Lock didn’t play in 2022 behind Smith, who broke four of Wilson’s Seahawks records for passing in a season that year. Lock made his first Seattle start this past December when Smith was out injured. Lock rallied the Seahawks past the then-defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles with a late touchdown drive. That has the 27-year old in position for better contract offers in free agency this month than he got last March before he signed a one-year, $4 million deal to return to Seattle for 2023.
Fant had 50 and a career-low 32 catches in his two seasons playing all 34 Seahawks regular-season games after arriving from Denver. He is also poised to enter free agency when it begins next week.
Harris had two sacks and 44 tackles in 15 games at defensive tackle for the Seahawks in 2022. He then signed with Cleveland. He had 1-1/2 sacks with 28 tackles for the Browns in 2023.
The Seahawks used the first pick they got from Denver in the Wilson trade, the ninth-overall choice in 2022, to select Charles Cross. He’s been Seattle’s starting left tackle for the last two seasons, from the first spring minicamp of his rookie year.
The extra second-round pick Seattle got from Denver for 2022 became outside linebacker Boye Mafe. He had three sacks and was surprisingly stout against the run as a rookie, leading to the Seahawks benching veteran Darrell Taylor. Mafe broke out in 2023. He led the Seahawks with nine sacks while playing 72% of the team’s defensive snaps. He is one of Seattle’s bright, young stars.
So is Devon Witherspoon. The Seahawks didn’t expect to get the fifth pick in the draft from the Wilson trade. But when Denver won only four games with him in 2022, Seattle got its highest pick since 2009. The used it on Witherspoon, a cornerback from Illinois.
The Seahawks’ highest-draft cornerback since Shawn Springs in the late 1990s quickly became Seattle’s best player on a bad, 30th-ranked defense. He was a starting cornerback and primary nickel who had a 97-yard interception return for a touchdown, three sacks and a Pro Bowl selection as a rookie.
Witherspoon and Mafe are the foundations upon which new Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and his new staff are rebuilding the defense.
Macdonald hopes Derick Hall joins them. The Seahawks’ linebacker and extra second-round pick from Denver in 2023 played in all 17 games this past season, primarily on special teams.
The other player the Seahawks got from the Wilson trade is Tyreke Smith. Seattle’s fifth-round pick in 2022 missed his entire rookie season injured. The Seahawks waived him from their roster this past September then put him on their practice squad after he played one game and nine snaps for them. The Arizona Cardinals signed him off Seattle’s practice squad during last season. He played two games and 10 snaps at outside linebacker for the Cardinals in 2023. He remains on Arizona’s roster.
This story was originally published March 4, 2024 at 2:37 PM.
