The Denver Broncos could be in some serious trouble for the way they’ve handed the Russell Wilson contract situation after they benched him for the rest of the 2023 season to avoid injury guarantees kicking in for next year. Doing this isn’t a major issue in and of itself. Teams do this type of thing somewhat regularly. However, when you couple this with the fact the Broncos threatened to do this months ago, they tried to get Wilson to rework his deal, and the NFLPA countered with the threat of legal action, this could become an issue that gets handled in the courts.

Denver tried to force Russell Wilson to redo his contract in late October or he would be benched. In response, the NFLPA sent a letter to the NFL and the organization stating that this would violate the CBA and the law.

“It has come to our attention that the Denver Broncos have recently informed Mr. Wilson and his Certified Contract Advisor that if Mr. Wilson would not renegotiate his Player Contract to relinquish certain salary guarantees, the Broncos would remove him from the starting lineup,” the NFLPA’s law firm wrote on Nov. 4. “If the Broncos follow-through on the Club’s threat, the Club will violate, among other things, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Mr. Wilson’s Player Contract and New York Law. And, we are particularly concerned that the Broncos still intend to commit these violations under the guise of “coaching decisions.”

Almost two months after this letter went to the Broncos, the team went ahead and announced they were benching Wilson for the final two games of the regular season.

Now, it sounds like the courts and the lawyers will ultimately decide whether the Broncos were within their rights to do this. I am certainly no lawyer, so I can’t speculate on how this plays out.

The Broncos may have hurt themselves long-term with this move

Broncos QB Russell Wilson and GM George Paton

As a sportswriter, though, I am qualified to discuss how sloppy and what a bad look these alleged tactics are from the Broncos (relatively) new ownership group, the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group. These owners are falling into the trap that many new owners fall into, thinking they can do the same things and use the same tactics they used to succeed in their other businesses (or at least continue to succeed after inheriting billions from their relatives).

While tactics like this may have helped keep Walmart at the top of the retail food chain for decades now, doing something like this to a Walmart employee is a lot easier than to a millionaire like Russell Wilson with a massive PR team or an organization with the legal clout of the NFLPA.

Not only may the Broncos face fines and maybe even football-related penalties — like the loss of draft picks — for these shenanigans moving forward. They also may have damaged their reputations among free agents with these alleged backhanded moves, which could hurt for a long time to come.