Russell Wilson: ‘No Way’ I Was Going to Change Injury Guarantees in Broncos Contract

Julia StumbaughFebruary 26, 2024

Perry Knotts/Getty Images

Russell Wilson says he was shocked by the Denver Broncos’ request that he delay the injury guarantees in his contract.

“I didn’t believe it, at first,” Wilson said Sunday on I AM ATHLETE. “I was like, this can’t be real.”

Wilson said the Broncos originally threatened to bench him for the final nine games of the season if he did not agree to a change which would have delayed when his 2025 base salary became fully guaranteed, per NBC Sports’ Mike Florio.

“I didn’t want to set a precedent for players to remove their injury guarantees,” Wilson said. “There was no way I was going to do that. They said, ‘We’re going to bench you, we’re going to bench you.’ I said, ‘Alright.'”

Wilson’s comments come around the 35-minute mark of the video below.

Wilson learned about the Broncos’ ask during the team’s Week 9 bye, per Florio. He started seven more games before he was benched for the final two contests of the season.

Wilson’s case was then taken up by the NFLPA. The players’ association told the Broncos in November that threatening Wilson with a loss of playing time over a contract dispute would violate the league CBA, Wilson’s contract and state law, per Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

Even with NFLPA’s backing, Wilson said on I AM ATHLETE that he did not know if he would be playing until the day of the Broncos’ Week 10 game, a Monday Night Football matchup on Nov. 13 against the Buffalo Bills.

Wilson passed for 193 yards and two touchdowns that night in a Broncos win.

“I still got to be a professional in the midst of it all. I got to be a pro… I got to be a leader,” Wilson said on I AM ATHLETE. “It’s about the team.”

In light of NFLPA’s warning, Broncos general manager George Paton said the discussions surrounding Wilson’s contract were “completely independent” of his Week 17 benching, per Nick Kosmider of The Athletic.

Wilson finished the season with 3,070 passing yards for 26 touchdowns and a 7-8 quarterback record through 15 games.

The five-year, $242 million extension he signed with the Broncos in 2022 kicks in next year.

The $37 million in base salary promised by that extension becomes fully guaranteed on March 17, according to Spotrac.

That amount was already injury guaranteed at signing, so the Broncos risked being locked in to the deal if Wilson was injured at the tail end of the season and could not pass a physical by his guarantee date.

Wilson’s late-season benching set the Broncos up for the possibility of cutting the quarterback this offseason, even at the cost of $85 million in dead cap over two seasons.

If that cut happens, it will not come as a surprise to Wilson. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported on Dec. 27 that the quarterback had anticipated leaving the team in March “for almost two months.”