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Insider Reveals Broncos' Final Salary-Cap Cost of Cutting Russ

The Denver Broncos won't have to eat as much dead money on Russell Wilson's contract in 2024 as feared.

Chad Jensen

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On Day 1 of the legal tampering window opening, Russell Wilson reportedly agreed to a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The move came a week after the Denver Broncos bit the bullet and released the nine-time Pro Bowler, despite it coming with what could have been a record-high dead-money hit to the salary cap. 

If Denver designated Wilson a pre-June 1 cut, it would come with an $85 million dead-money hit, which would have doubled the NFL record. However, if the QB were designated a post-June 1, it would be $34.5M in dead money in 2024.

We've been waiting for word on how the Broncos ultimately designated Wilson's release, and CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones gave us the answer on Wednesday as the NFL's new league year officially opened. 

"Source: The Denver Broncos will designate QB Russell Wilson as a post-June 1 release. The release is not yet official but will take place soon," Jones reported on X. 

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The designation doesn't change how much Denver is on the hook for relative to money paid and owed to Wilson vis-a-vis the five-year, $245 million extension he signed in 2022. But designating Wilson a post-June 1 cut does give the Broncos nearly $50M in breathing room relative to the salary cap this year. 

Here's what a dead-cap hit means and how it applies to the Broncos' 2024 situation:

The NFL raised the 2024 salary cap for teams to $255.4 million. That means that teams can spend no more than $255.4M on players in a given season. 

A dead-cap hit is money that is deducted from a team's single-season salary cap, as if the player in question were still on the roster, due to money that's either been paid to the player via signing bonuses or guaranteed money left on the deal (or both). Doing the math, $34.5M (as a post-June 1 cut) subtracted from $255.4M equals $220.9M. 

That means, not counting any other dead money the Broncos may be carrying from other players' contracts (who are no longer with the team), their effective salary cap this year is $220.9M, not $255.4M. Math was never my strong suit. I chose words. So hopefully, this makes sense. 

The Broncos spent most of this offseason tens of millions of dollars over the salary cap for 2024. The NFL mandates that teams are 'cap compliant' before the new league year deadline — meaning they have to be under the salary cap as it relates to the top 51 contracts on the roster. 

After releasing Wilson, the Broncos knew they'd have to make some tough personnel decisions in order to a.) be cap compliant and b.) have the means to sign a few free agents, re-sign a few players, and have the cap space to sign their 2024 draft class. That's why safety Justin Simmons was released, as well as tight end Chris Manhertz. 

It's also why right tackle Mike McGlinchey, left guard Ben Powers, defensive lineman Zach Allen, and wide receiver Tim Patrick restructured their contracts, allowing the Broncos to create a lot more cap space by kicking their respective financial liabilities into the future. It's also the genesis for trading wideout Jerry Jeudy to Cleveland, which cleared roughly $13M in salary-cap liabilities for 2024, and it's why center Lloyd Cushenberry III and linebacker Josey Jewell weren't re-signed. 

Back to Wilson, who had offsetting language in his Broncos contract. That means if the Broncos were to release him, which they did, and he signed with a new team, whatever that team paid him would be deducted from what Denver would be obligated to pay. 

Wilson's new contract with the Steelers is basically the veteran minimum. That means the Broncos will be paying Wilson about $38M this year to play for the Steelers. 

Ouch. 

But these are the consequences of making a bad deal and missing badly on the Wilson trade. Broncos head coach Sean Payton and GM George Paton felt it was in the team's best interest for the Broncos to pay Wilson to play elsewhere this season instead of Denver. 

That's an indictment on where Wilson's at in his career. But it's also a brutal castigation of the trade Paton made to acquire Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks, which was bad enough in hindsight, only to add insult to injury by signing him to a five-year, quarter-billion-dollar extension before he'd ever taken a single regular-season snap as a Bronco. 

You live and learn, I suppose. It's hard to fault Paton for making the trade, based on what we knew about Wilson then. The extension, however, is indefensible because waiting even one or two regular-season games would have seriously impacted how the Broncos negotiated Wilson's deal. It was obvious out of the gates that Wilson wasn't the same player who won a Super Bowl in Seattle and only missed the playoffs twice in a decade. 

Payton and Paton were aware that by moving on from Wilson, the Broncos would be going far beyond just resetting at quarterback. The move essentially ushers in a rebuild due to the demand of having to shed so many high-dollar veteran contracts in order to live with the dead-money hits on the Wilson contract and obey NFL rules. 

The Broncos are looking to the 2024 NFL draft to find their future franchise quarterback to rebuild around. Holding the No. 12 overall pick, Denver is within striking distance of a potential franchise guy. But Payton and Paton may have to trade up in order to guarantee landing one of the top four quarterbacks in the class, and such a move won't come cheap. 

It'll be interesting to see how the Broncos navigate that particular challenge when the draft rolls around on April 25. For now, Over The Cap estimates that Denver has a little north of $44M in effective cap space after signing free-agent safety Brandon Jones and defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, as well as bringing back safety P.J. Locke, kicker Wil Lutz, and tight end Adam Trautman.  

There's no doubt that Denver is a weaker team than it was two weeks ago, and I'm not just talking about the absence of a starting quarterback. The addition-by-subtraction arithmetic doesn't often add up out of the gates when a team makes the opening salvos of a rebuild. 

The hope is that by the time the rebuild is complete, anchored by the acquisition of a young future franchise QB, the addition-by-subtraction thing eventually balances out. That means it's likely to get worse, for a time, before it gets better. 

But it will get better. 

Stay patient, Broncos Country. The last eight years have been brutal, but the silver lining to this rebuild is that the Broncos have been kicking the can down the road since Peyton Manning hung up his cleats. 

Just be glad that it's happening under the discerning eye and guiding hand of Sean Payton, and not Vic Fangio or Nathaniel Hackett. Talk about a tender mercy of the Football Gods. 

UPDATE: Adam Schefter confirmed the report that the Broncos designated Wilson a post-June 1 cut. Schefter also revealed how the Broncos plan to split Wilson's dead-money hits over the next two seasons, including $53M in 2024: 

"Broncos officially have released QB Russell Wilson with a post-June 1 designation, per source. As was its plan entering free agency, Denver now will spread the cap hit by taking on $53 million in 2024 and $32 million in 2025," Schefter reported on X. 

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Chad Jensen
CHAD JENSEN

Chad Jensen is the Founder of Mile High Huddle and creator of the wildly popular Mile High Huddle Podcast. Chad has been on the Denver Broncos beat since 2012 and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America.

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