It is safe to say that the Denver Broncos' Russell Wilson era is a colossal failure. A couple of years after giving up so much to the Seattle Seahawks in order to acquire the Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Denver is now expected to release Wilson. The looming move will also break the record for the biggest dead cap hit in the history of the NFL.

The Broncos to incur headache dead cap once Russell Wilson gets released

Cutting Wilson will incur Denver a dead cap hit of $85 million and leave the team with two options on how that will be broken down (via James Palmer of the NFL Network).

The Broncos’ dead cap hits for releasing Wilson will vary based on which approach they take with his $22 million 2024 option bonus:

Route 1: designate him as a post-June 1st cut before March 17th (without exercising his option bonus) which would leave dead cap hits of $53M in 2024 and $32M in 2025

Route 2: exercise the 2024 option bonus early (can be done any time before it is due on March 17th) and then designate him as a post-June 1st cut before March 17th which would leave dead cap hits of $35.4M in 2024 and $49.6M in 2025

After they acquired Wilson from the Seahawks, the Broncos signed the QB to a five-year $242.5 million contract extension that came with a guaranteed money of $161 million. But instead of Denver becoming a legitimate Super Bowl contender with Wilson, they managed to just win 13 games with him without making the playoffs in either the 2022 or 2023 campaigns.