OK, that's pretty funny. He's officially released after June 1, but he's somehow not on the roster on March 17. So NFL.
And then Wilson's contract ends up being for $124M for two seasons, one as a bottom-five starting QB in the league, and now one in which he'll end up in the third or fourth quartile (sixth or seventh octile) of starting-QB value. Russellettes can cherry-pick some of the rate stats in which he's ranked highly, like completion percentage, (low) interception percentage, TD percentage, and passer rating (while of course ignoring or putting down the rate stats that make a lot more sense in terms of jibing with how much Wilson is helping his team actually win games, like QBR, DVOA, ANY/A, and sack percentage) to try to tell themselves Wilson is actually a good QB, but the fact remains that Payton's version of Russball is a lot like Carroll's version, but lower-volume, and that's because Payton has recognized how correct Carroll's way of handling Wilson was.
Even at high percentages, Wilson is currently 23rd in pass attempts per game and passing yards per game, and the Broncos are 29th in the league in passing yards. The discrepancy between those rankings is because Wilson is so far down there that some of the teams that have used multiple quarterbacks have outperformed the Broncos' passing attack. And Payton's risk-mitigation strategy is not just fewer passes. It's shorter ones too. Wilson is currently 29th in both intended air yards per passing attempt and actual air yards on completions.
Russellettes use terms like "shackled" and "handcuffed" to describe what Carroll did to Wilson when Wilson was a Seahawk. By that standard, Payton has straightjacketed Wilson, wrapped him in chains, and hung him upside down in a cell with a bricked-over door in an island prison that doesn't appear on any maps and is surrounded by treacherous, non-navigable ocean filled with naval mines.
$62M a season for one season of one of the bottom three starting quarterbacks in the league and one season of a low-volume, low-risk game manager in an offense a second-tier rookie could run. Yikes. I probably wouldn't find it quite as hilarious if I hadn't disliked the Broncos for decades. If the Vikings, for example, had done it, I'd feel bad for them rather than laughing my ass off at them like I am with the Broncos.
And as we've said earlier, with just $39M of the $124M fully guaranteed at signing having appeared on the Broncos' salary-cap accounting, there's a whopping $85M of dead cap split as $35.4M in 2024 and (hahahaha) $49.6M in 2025. They'll be using cap space equivalent to that used on top-quality QBs two seasons after they've gotten Wilson's utter mediocrity off their roster. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. Wait. Strike that. This could only be better if The Teeth had been responsible for trading for Wilson and for giving Wilson his team-wrecking contract extension.
Well, at least the Russellettes can point to the Browns' contract for Watson and correctly say that Wilson's hasn't been the absolute worst so far. But what's scary is that "so far." As awful as Watson's contract has been so far, the Browns are stuck with him for at least another season or two, so there's still a nonzero chance he comes back and has a couple of decent seasons and ends up producing about the same value per dollar or better on his contract as Wilson. It's not likely (Watson sucked at a level between Wilson's 2022 and 2023 - but closer to Wilson's 2022 - in his limited time on the field this season, he's not getting younger, and there's about 85% more fully guaranteed money in Watson's contract than in Wilson's), but it could happen. Let's say it's about as likely as Wilson ever making even second-team All-Pro for a second time in his career.
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