Benching Russell Wilson

I’m a very lukewarm Denver Broncos fan, but I do find this story pretty interesting:
The Denver Broncos are benching veteran quarterback Russell Wilson for the team’s final two games, multiple league sources confirmed. Wilson was informed early Wednesday morning.
The decision to bench Wilson for Jarrett Stidham is tied at least in part to his contract. Wilson is guaranteed $39 million for 2024. There is a $37 million figure in 2025 that is currently guaranteed for injury only. It would become fully guaranteed if Wilson is still on the roster on the fifth day of the league year in March of next year.
By sitting Wilson, the Broncos won’t risk injury to the quarterback, giving them several months to decide on his future with the franchise. The benching is an indication the Broncos will move on from him.
Stidham, Wilson’s backup for the first 15 games, is in line to start the final two against the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders. Wilson will be the No. 2 quarterback, a team source said.
Following back-to-back losses to the Detroit Lions and New England Patriots, Denver (7-8) has just a 1.8 percent chance to make the playoffs, according to The Athletic’s Austin Mock. The Broncos started the season 1-5 before winning six of seven to move within a game behind the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West prior to dropping their last two contests.
Wilson, 35, has thrown for 3,070 yards with 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions, resulting in a 98.0 passer rating that ranks seventh among qualified quarterbacks.
After spending last season looking like a guy who has spent the previous summer on too many private planes and private beaches, Wilson has actually been quite good this season. Sean Payton has obviously decided to cut him before the March vesting of his 2025 salary, which is a decision that makes zero sense to me. Given his comeback form this year, it’s not overly optimistic to think the Broncos could get another couple of good seasons out of Wilson — certainly far better than whatever they’re likely to get from whatever rookie project or veteran castoff is likely to replace him.
On top of that, a couple of seasons from now the otherwise devastating cap hit the team will take by cutting him now will have declined to a much more manageable level. This looks like one of those dreaded power struggles, in which the head coach decides that the star quarterback is the problem, and the front office backs the coach, in part because management paid so much to get the coach in the first place (they also paid a fortune in salary, players, and draft picks to get Wilson, but apparently they’re going to ignore sunk costs in the case of their quarterback but not in regard to their coach).
Also, it’s pretty hilarious to see the Walton-Penner group sweating bullets over the very slim possibility that they might be on the hook for an extra $37 million in salary if Wilson suffers a major injury in the next two weeks. I mean Rob Walton is worth $65 billion, his daughter is scraping by on a measly $5 billion, and his son in law is basically homeless (Net worth: Slightly more than one billion dollars).
In other words, $37 million to these people is the equivalent of a medium pepperoni pizza (with 10% off coupon) to a normal person, but a penny $65 bllion saved inherited is a penny earned. And I do wonder what the league office thinks about a franchise more or less throwing its last two games of the season so that the ownership doesn’t have to worry about the extremely slim possibility of having to pay what practically speaking amounts to what is for them a trivial amount of extra money.