Then they would only have to pay him 17 mil for 2024 and nothing after that. Most of Russ's money was in the signing bonus.
If I was the Broncos I'd take my lumps and cut him, no way would I want to keep on paying him 2025 and beyond.
I'm more curious about Sean Payton's tenure. While I don't think he's a bad coach, he really seems to riding the coattails of his former glory with the Saints from 2009. That's a LONG TIME AGO.
If Sean can't retool Russ into a more effective QB will it be on just Russ, or the both of them?
You pose a good question..Payton has won a lot of games with crappy QB's, he has a winning record with Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill lol.
Ultimately, I see what Denver is doing here. They're hired Sean Payton to fix Russ. If anybody can do it, he can. I think Russ is the 4th out of the 4 other QB's in the AFC West. Mahomes, Herbert, Garrapolo, then Russ.
I haven't seen Denver's schedule, I'm assuming besides the AFC West they'll have to play Chicago, GB without Rodgers, Detroit, Minn in the NFC..and probably Indy, Houston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh in the AFC. Denver might win 8 or 9 games, but no better than that.
I doubt they'll blame Payton, there's only so much you can do with a declining QB, better to cut Russ, take the 85 million cap hit for 2024 and start anew in 2025.
Whoever gets blamed, they'll just end up with another year or two of rebuild mode, so if Denver can squeak into the playoffs, even as a Wildcard, it signifies an improvement. Russ's payment schedule will play out regardless
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