Russell Wilson was threatened with a benching if he didn’t agree to adjust his contract.
He was ultimately benched for the Broncos’ final two games of the 2023 season in what Sean Payton — in his first year in Denver after Nathaniel Hackett was fired in Wilson’s first year with the team — dubbed a football decision.
The unstable Broncos, who haven’t made the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50 eight years ago, have seemingly done everything they can to show Wilson he’s not wanted anymore.
Yet, amid rumors the team might take a whopping $85 million dead-cap hit just to release Wilson, the Super Bowl-winner and nine-time Pro Bowler says he wants to stay with the Broncos and lead them back to glory.
“I’ve got more fire than ever, honestly, especially over the past two years of what I’ve gone through,” Wilson said on the “I Am Athlete” podcast when asked by ex-Jet Brandon Marshall if he still has obsession. “Whether it’s in Denver or somewhere else, I hope it’s in Denver, I hope I get to finish there. I committed there, I wanted to be there. I want to be there.”
In stating his goal with the Broncos, however, the 35-year-old Wilson did say he wants to be with a team that wants him.
“For me, it’s about winning. Over the next five years, I want to win two [Super Bowls], I want to feel the chill of that trophy again. I love the city and everything else, but you also want to be in a place that wants you, too. The thing I want to do is win, that’s all I care about.”
The Broncos acquired Wilson from the Seahawks two years ago and gave him a five-year, $242.5 million contract extension.
After a miserable first season with the team, in which he recorded career-lows in completion percentage (60.5) and touchdowns (16) and saw Hackett get fired after just 15 games, the Broncos, with Payton now on board, appeared to develop buyer’s remorse.
Wilson, who won Super Bowl XLVIII with Seattle over Denver in February 2014, told reporters in December that the Broncos told him in October during the bye week, after a win over the Chiefs brought them to 3-5, they’d bench him for the rest of the season if he didn’t alter his $37 million injury guarantee for the 2025 season.
“I didn’t believe it at first. I was like, This can’t be real,” Wilson said on the podcast. “I got that call, ‘Hey, we’re gonna bench you for the next nine games if you don’t change your injury guarantee.’ … They want to push back my injury guarantee and remove it for the rest of the year, so that way if I get injured, they don’t have to pay it.
“I didn’t want to set a precedent for players to remove their injury guarantees. … There was no way I was gonna do that. So when they said, ‘We’re gonna bench you, we’re gonna bench you,’ I said, ‘All right, if that’s what you want to do.’”
Wilson said Payton then told him to forget about the request like nothing happened and that he’d start on “Monday Night Football” against the Bills.
Denver won that game, their third of a five-game win streak.
Wilson was benched with the team at 7-8 after a home loss to the Patriots on Christmas Eve.
He finished the season with 3,070 yards, 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
