Russell Wilson said on Friday the Denver Broncos approached him midway through the season about adjusting his contract and threatened to bench him if he didn’t.
The star quarterback, making his first public comments since he was officially benched Wednesday, said the team came to him and broached the subject of renegotiating his contract, specifically the $37 million (his 2025 salary) he would be guaranteed to receive if he could not pass a physical on the fifth day of the new league year in March.
“They came up to me during the bye week, beginning of the bye week - Monday or Tuesday - and told me that if I didn’t change my contract, my injury guarantee, that I’d be benched for the rest of the year,” Wilson told reporters Friday.
Wilson’s contract includes a $37 million injury clause for 2025 that becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2024 league year in March and is also guaranteed for injury. The Broncos wanted him to delay the trigger date of the clause.
Players cannot be cut if they’re injured, so any major injury to Wilson that prevented him from passing a physical in March would lock Denver into paying his 2025 salary regardless of whether he’s on the team roster or not next season. Wilson’s salary of $39 million for the 2024 season is already guaranteed.
“I wasn’t going to remove or push or take away my injury guarantee,” Wilson told reporters Friday. “This game is such a physical game, I’ve played 12 years and all that. That matters to me.”
Wilson said he was stunned by the conversation.
“It definitely hurt,” Wilson told reporters Friday. “It was a low blow for a bit.”
The Broncos had just posted a 24-9 win over Kansas City, their first win over Kansas City since 2015. Instead of celebrating the win going into the bye week, Wilson was left wondering if he would be the starting quarterback from game to game.
“I was definitely disappointed about it,” Wilson told reporters. “It was a process throughout the whole week, whole bye week. We just came off beating (Kansas City), played a pretty good game against the (Kansas City), we just came off of that.”
Wilson said the NFL Players Association eventually got involved with the negotiations between his agent and team representatives. There were no changes to Wilson’s contract and he started the next nine games.
Denver coach Sean Payton said Friday he wasn’t “privy” to the conversations between team representatives, the NFLPA, Wilson and his agent.
“I’m handling the football,” Payton told reporters Friday. “That’s something for (general manager George Paton) and the front office. I’m not involved in any of that. Certainly I’m involved in a lot and there will be a time and a place at the end of the season where some of the questions you might have, somebody else will be able to answer. My focus has been on winning.”
Payton said winning is the reason he decided Wednesday to bench Wilson in favor of backup Jarrett Stidham. The Broncos (7-8) sill have a remote chance of earning a playoff berth and the first-year coach said he thinks backup Jarrett Stidham can provide a spark for an offense that’s struggled in recent weeks.
“I know how this has been written, but this decision is strictly what I believe gives us a chance to win No. 8,” Payton told reporters. “Hard decision ... there will be no other reasons.”
The Broncos will have to make a decision about Wilson during the offseason, but the expectation is they will part ways. Wilson said he hopes to remain in Denver, but added he’s prepared to move on.
“I hope that it’s here, I hope that it’s here for a long time,” Wilson said Friday. “I hope we win some more silverware in the front hall and we get some more championships, and if it’s not here, I’ll be prepared to do that somewhere else, but I hope that it’s here. I genuinely mean that, I brought my family here and everything else.”
