Broncos' Sean Payton: Russell Wilson's Future 'Hasn't Been Decided' amid NFL Rumors

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters on Tuesday that the organization hasn't decided on Russell Wilson's future at this point.

"It's too early," he said. "I spent half an hour with Russ yesterday and I told him 'Look, I don't think it's going to be a long, drawn out process but it hasn't been decided relative to what our plans are.'"

It appeared a divorce between the sides was imminent when the Broncos benched Wilson for the final two weeks of the season. Wilson responded by telling reporters that the team had asked him to adjust his contract during the Week 9 bye.

"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. We had nine games left. I was definitely disappointed about it. ... We had just come off a big win against the Chiefs. I was excited for us to keep fighting for the playoffs and get on a hot streak."

The veteran quarterback has $37 million in his 2025 contract currently guaranteed only for injury. The team reportedly asked to push back the date it would become fully guaranteed, without caveats, if he was still on the roster, per The Athletic's Nick Kosmider. As his contract currently stands, that money fully guarantees on the fifth day of the 2024 league year.

"During the bye week, I did reach out in a good faith and creative attempt to adjust his contract," general manager George Paton told reporters Tuesday. "We couldn't get a deal done."

He added that the decision to bench Wilson was "completely independent to the conversations I had with his agent," though that statement might be met with some skepticism given that Wilson's $37 million would have been guaranteed if he suffered a major injury in those final weeks.

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote in late December: "The decision to bench him for the final two games of the 2023 season comes from a desire to ensure that he will be able to pass a physical before the $37 million in injury guarantees become full guarantees. If he's injured, they can't cut him before the money becomes fully guaranteed."

It all sounds as though the Broncos want to move on from Wilson, and want to do so with as little financial punishment as possible. Cutting him this offseason is going to carry a massive $85 million figure in dead cap space (and it's hard to imagine anybody trading for a contract that still has five years and $242.5 million remaining).

But if the Broncos felt sure that Wilson was going to play at a high level for years to come, they never would have benched him in the first place, which makes it feel like a matter of when, not if, he'll be moving on.