The Russet Era In Denver Is Over

Hey Broncos country… let's ride... Into a future without Russell Wilson. Hey Broncos country... Let's ride... Into salary cap hell. 

Yes Broncos Country, you are free from the Russet… but it’s gonna cost you. You might be happy about this QB divorce Broncos Country, but it’s gonna be the most expensive QB divorce ever. It might have been cheaper to just give the dude half of the franchise. 

$85 mil is the dead cap just to be free of the Sack of Potatoes. AND They still owe him $39 mil in guarantees. So they’re paying him almost $40 mil to not play QB. While also absorbing $85 mil in dead cap. And in the immortal words of Charlie Casserly, that's not good... Below not good.

Denver just paid Russet $124 mil to win 11 games. That’s 11.2 mil per win. They paid Russet more per win than Brock Purdy will make on his entire rookie contract. 

And that’s before we get into the five picks and three players Denver gave up to trade for the dude. Including two first round picks. And if that wasn't all horrifying enough, there’s the real kicker, or I should say, the real kick in the stick.

That five year, $242 mil contract Russ signed after he was traded to Denver was actually an extension. An extension on the two years he had left on his prior deal. And I'm not trying to go all math pop quiz on you clones because I know it will stress you all out, but I'm confident you can do that math yourself and figure out what that means…

That means that Russ will never end up playing a single down on that 5 year $242 mil extension. The dude got cut before it even kicked in. The Broncos threw Russet a 5 year, quarter of a bil extension before he ever played a down for them. And then sawed him off before he ever played a down on that extension. 

So is it the worst trade in NFL history or the worst contract extension in NFL history? As always, YES. In this case, it really truly might actually be both.

Which is why it’s incredible that GM George Payton is still the GM of that team. And look, I don’t like calling for people’s jobs and I’m not calling for his job. I’m just saying, it’s shocking that he still has that job.

Think of it this way, they traded for the Russet with 2 years and $51 mil left on his contract. And they wound up paying him $124 mil for those two years. So really they threw him a $73 million dollar raise before he ever played a snap for them, just so he could win 11 games in two seasons, and leave them with $85 mil in dead cap. What Russet really got was a no year, $73 mil extension.

I'm no capologist or front office guru... But that seems like a really really bad deal. No matter how you look at it, no matter how you break it down, it’s absolutely one of the most disastrous player acquisitions in the history of the sport. If it isn't the SINGLE most disastrous.

Shout out to Tariq Woolen by the way, because my dude saw this coming a mile away. My dude was all over this. I have no idea what Denver’s internal scouting reports on Russ look like, but I definitely know what Reek’s scouting report sounded like. 

That clip was an instant classic and it gets better every day. But the truth is, that Sack of Potatoes actually got his act together this past season. He wasn’t looking so lumpy and so starchy and so weird. He was actually in great shape, I have to be fair about that. And I’ll also be fair about this: Russet didn’t play badly this season. He didn’t. 

I’m not gonna sit here and tell you he was great. But he threw 26 tds to 8 ints, completed 66% of his passes, had a 98.0 passer rating, he had 4 fourth quarter comebacks which was actually tied for the league lead. And he was 7-8 in the games he started this past season. None of which is elite, but it's not like we're talking about the Coug Hunter here.

Clearly, it wasn’t just Russ' play that got him run out of Denver. Clearly, the Broncos just couldn’t have the dude around anymore. At some point between the high knees and jumping jacks on the team plane and his own office on the second floor and his own film sessions and his own staff and the drama about the QB wristband and the weird sideline drama with Sean Payton... At some point during all that the Broncos decided they couldn't deal with the dude anymore. And they would pay whatever the cost to be rid of him. Even if that cost was $85 mil in dead money. That’s the thing: for whoever gets him next: you get a guy who’s a shell of his former self, and you get THAT GUY. His game and play aside, not everyone wants to deal with THE GUY EITHER: clearly, Sean Payton didn’t. So now, Russ has to find someone who does.

Now, you would think that another team would look at the season he just had and the bargain he's now available for and find it appealing. It's just hard to actually nail down which team that might be. And certainly not until a bunch of other dominoes fall, because there are better options than russet out there: and the draft is deep as hell with qb’s. So where does this dude end up?. There’s no obvious destination. And if there’s no obvious destination, how the hell is he going to win those two additional rings in the next five years he was going on about recently. 

So maybe I was on to something last month when I said the only way Russ is gonna get the two rings he thinks he has left in the tank is by backing up Mahomes in KC. That might be his only option to get anywhere near a Lombardi ever again. 

I give the dude credit for his positivity, but it also doesn’t seem like Russ has ever been further detached from reality. The "chill of that trophy?" My dude, you don't even have the chill of a bench to feel on your ass right now. 

Like I said, how is he gonna win two rings without one job? Hey Russ, worry about landing one gig before you worry about lifting two Lombardis.  You won one, in your prime with a great team: how are you going to win two past your prime, with no team?

Honestly, the only thing more unbelievable than Seattle absolutely working Denver in arguably the worst deal in league history, is what has happened to Wilson’s career and legacy overall.  Like I always say, when it goes, it goes fast.  But not THIS FAST. 

ABOUT FIVE MINUTES AGO, THIS DUDE WAS A BONA FIDE LOCK FOR a gold jacket. This was supposedly one of the greats. This is a Super Bowl champion QB who was a handoff away from being a two-time Super Bowl champion QB. Now he's the dude at the center of the worst trade and worst contract extension ever.  And that jacket may never see the light of day.  Hell, it’s hard to even see where his next opportunity will even come from.

It’s an enormous WHAT NOW? For Russ, but it might be an even bigger WHAT NOW? For the Broncos. Because now they have no QB and they have $85 mil in dead cap. Hard to know what they're planning or where they'll go next... What we do know is that it couldn't be Russet. Anyone but Russet. We also know they have the #12 overall pick. And we also know what Sean Payton told me directly in Vegas about what he's looking for in a QB.

Obviously, Russ couldn't find the seat heaters. He didn't know how to pop the trunk. Or the hood. He couldn't unscrew the gas lid. He didn't even know how to open the glove box. So he had to go. No matter the cost.

It's just hard to know where he'll go. Or where exactly the Broncos will turn to find a QB who can access the traction control and turn down the treble on the sound system and put on the intermittent windshield wipers.