Russell Wilson’s future with Broncos in limbo, Sean Payton says: ‘He’ll be the first to know’

Where do things stand between the Denver Broncos and Russell Wilson after the nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback was benched for the final two weeks of the season? In limbo, apparently.

It’s been a little over a week since Wilson stood in the locker room and confirmed media reports that the Broncos told him he would be benched for the team’s final nine games unless he agreed to delay a contract trigger guaranteeing his 2025 salary. Through his frustration that day, he expressed a desire to stay in Denver.

On Tuesday, Broncos head coach Sean Payton, general manager George Paton and owner/CEO Greg Penner were all asked about Wilson’s future during an end of season news conference.

Payton, who still maintains Wilson’s benching was a football decision, didn’t slam the door on Wilson’s return.

“There’s so many things that go into a decision specific to the quarterback, which is significant obviously, so it’s too early at all,” Payton said Tuesday. “I spent half an hour with Russ yesterday, and I told him, I said, ‘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.’ But as soon as we know something, certainly, he’ll be the first to know.”

While Wilson and the Broncos parting ways may have seemed like a foregone conclusion, Payton insisted otherwise.

“Otherwise it would have been like ‘Hey, goodbye,'” Payton added. “We’ll look at all the scenarios and try to do what’s best for the Broncos. But communication will be important, and that final decision hasn’t been made.”

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and Russell Wilson have been in contact. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

The Broncos went 1-1 with fourth-year quarterback Jarrett Stidham as the starter and Wilson on the bench, finishing the season with an 8-9 record.

If the motivation to sit Wilson was solely about his performance, the franchise coincidentally avoided the financial pitfall it could have taken if the signal caller suffered a major injury during one of those games.

Paton confirmed Wilson’s interest in remaining with the Broncos on Tuesday before giving his side of what transpired with the quarterback’s contract negotiations before he was benched. Payton wasn’t involved, Paton added.

“During the bye week, I did reach out to Russ’ agent in good faith and create an attempt to adjust his contract,” the general manager said. “We couldn’t get a deal done, moved on with our season, didn’t come up again. Fast forward [to] Week 17, Sean [Payton] makes a change at the quarterback position. This was a football decision made by Sean, what he thought was in the best interest of the team. This was completely independent of any conversations I had with the agent. It was a football decision made by Sean. In regards to the negotiations, I’ll just keep the negotiations private.”

Penner didn’t concede to any wrongdoing when asked if he wished talks with Wilson had been approached differently.

“Any time you have a situation like this, you try to have these conversations, it’s not always going to be easy,” he said. “I’m sure in this case we probably could’ve done some things in a different way. But again, our goal was to see if there was a nice, constructive path forward that was amenable to both parties.”

Wilson’s $37 million injury guarantee for 2025 becomes fully guaranteed in March. If the Broncos want to evade it, they will need to move on from Wilson in the next few months.