How NFL's salary-cap boost affects Broncos' decision to cut Russell Wilson
The Denver Broncos are expected to release nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson before March 17 when his $37M in injury guarantees kicks in.
Their decision to move on from the 35-year-old signal caller was made exponentially easier on Friday when the NFL announced that the salary cap for the 2024 season was rising to an unprecedented $255.4M.
The Broncos went from being roughly $26M over the cap to $10.7M over after the announcement, and the percentage of their cap affected by the dead money accrued when they cut Wilson (presumably as a post-June 1 designation) also goes down.
Denver can absorb all $85M in dead cap hit in 2024, which is more than double the NFL record for a single player, per the Denver Post, or it can spread that number out over the next two seasons.
Option 1 would be to divvy it up with $53M going toward the 2024 cap and $32M being diverted to 2025, or Denver can eat $35.4M in 2024 (the salary it would be paying Wilson anyway if he were playing) and push $49.6M to 2025.
Before the cap jump, the entirety of Wilson’s $85M dead money would have accounted for 35.1% of the Broncos 2024 salary cap, but now it’s 33.3%. If they choose to do the $53M/$32M option, he would account for 20.8% of the cap instead of 21.9%, and if they go the $35.4M/$49.6M route, he’d account for 13.9% of the cap instead of 14.6%.
Denver owes Wilson $39M guaranteed in 2024 whether he’s on its roster or not, but the rest of the money it has to pay him once he’s officially released just became a little easier to cope with.
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