Sean Payton is trying to clear the air over the Broncos’ shocking decision to bench Russell Wilson with two weeks left in the regular season.
The short version: Denver is “desperately trying to win.”
On Wednesday, Payton addressed the decision with reporters that the Broncos were going with Jarrett Stidham as the starting quarterback over the 35-year-old Wilson for the final two games.
The move has sparked speculation over Wilson’s future with the organization beyond this season, but Payton pushed back on that notion.
“I understand all the speculation and everything that surrounds a move like that,” Payton said. “I can tell you, we’re desperately trying to win. Sure in our game today there are economics and all those other things, but the number one push behind this — and it’s a decision I’m making — is to get a spark offensively.
“Obviously, it’s difficult and all of us feel like, ‘Man we didn’t do well enough.’ But one of the things we saw when we signed Stidham in the offseason was, not only film from preseason games, but regular season games. He’s a guy that I’m anxious to see play and if I didn’t feel like he gave us a chance to win, we wouldn’t be making that move.”
Stidham, 27, is in his fourth NFL season and first with the Broncos after two years with the Patriots and one with Raiders.
He started a pair of games for Las Vegas last season — the only starts of his career — and lost both games.
The Broncos still have an 8 percent chance to make the playoffs, per NFL.com, but the economics of the Wilson decision are hard to ignore.
Wilson is owed $37 million in 2025, and that money becomes guaranteed in March 2024 if he’s still on the team, according to multiple reports.
That means if Wilson were to get hurt over the final two games and is still injured and recovering in March, the Broncos would still be on the hook for that money — even if they wanted to part ways with the 35-year-old QB.
When pressed on the financial issue, Payton responded by saying the team could’ve made the benching decision sooner if they were worried about being on the hook for that money.
Wilson struggled mightily during his first season following a trade from Seattle in 2022, but he has improved this year, though not nearly enough for Denver to be in better position to make the playoffs.
Wilson is tied for sixth in the league with 26 passing touchdowns, but his 3,070 passing yards are 18th in the NFL.
He has eight games this season in which he’s thrown for under 200 yards.
The Broncos’ offense as a whole is only 16th in scoring with 21.8 points per game and 25th in passing with 187.5 yards a contest.
“These are difficult decisions and obviously there’s more attention when it’s the quarterback, who is under contract,” Payton said. “But different than maybe earlier decisions we’ve made with maybe last year’s starters. I can just assure you one thing. … I’m just interested in winning and it doesn’t matter how.
“When you do this for this long a period of time, it’s all you’re interested in because there’s nothing like it and then the other side of it, there’s nothing like that either.”