In which Russell Wilson makes NFL history, through no fault of his own
The transactions that brought the star quarterback from Seattle to Denver should be an inspiration to armchair GMs everywhere
You don’t have to spend long in sports media to realize that most fans think they could do a better job than the general manager of their favourite team. Which is fine, it’s part of fandom. I once worked with a guy who took it a little too far, spending extended time on the phone most days discussing hypothetical NHL trade scenarios with his girlfriend. His commitment to constantly reworking the Leafs roster was remarkable, and I always wondered if the girlfriend was actively participating or just letting him drone on.
It was Kyle Dubas.
No! Little joke there. But the guy in question did exist and I hope he and his partner are doing great, assuming she didn’t lose it one day and tell him she honestly didn’t give a shit about Cody Ceci one way or the other.
My general rule is that being a professional GM is harder than most fans imagine, which is why even the demonstrably good ones get fired from time to time. But every now and then a transaction comes along to suggest the opposite: that the guys getting the big paycheques are worse at this than a fan chosen at random.
Which is how we get to Russell Wilson. Wilson, you may have heard, was released this week by the Denver Broncos. The nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback went to Denver from Seattle two years ago for the extremely steep price of five draft picks and three players. Two of those picks were first-rounders, two were in the second. It was a bounty. A haul. Your veritable motherlode.
He won 11 games over two seasons, and was benched last year because new head coach/lunatic Sean Payton didn’t want him to get hurt and trigger injury guarantees that would have prevented the Broncos from cutting him just now. If it’s not the worst NFL trade ever, it has to be among the nominees. Wilson was 33 at the time of the trade and was already showing signs in Seattle of losing some of the athleticism that made him a great weapon. Wilson without his scrambling ability was like, say, Chad Pennington. Perhaps this is why the Seahawks were ready to move on from a franchise legend?
But wait, there’s more! Wilson still had two years left on his Seattle contract when he came to the Broncos. They quickly gave him a five-year, US$242-million contract extension that is almost impossible to believe. Again, he was 33. And slowing down. WHAT.
The incredible thing here is that Wilson, in being released this week — technically not until next week, but whatever, they announced it — will never actually play for the Broncos under that contract. They literally gave him a massive deal that, it turns out, was completely unnecessary. And because US$161-million of that ticket was guaranteed, the Broncos have to pay him that amount over the next four seasons. They can invoke some salary-cap shenanigans to get the worst of the pain over with, but will still have dead-money charges — basically blank space on the cap — of US$35-million in 2024 and $50-million in 2025. For one guy! The Broncos have already started to cut good, useful players because of their pending cap problems. If the Wilson deal wasn’t the worst contract in NFL history, it has to be among the nominees.
But wait, there’s still more! The Broncos owe Wilson a US$39-million salary this coming season whether he plays in the NFL, tries his luck in Saskatchewan, or sits on his couch and eats Cheetos. Just crushes them. There’s no reason for any team to pay him more than the league minimum of just under $1-million, since the Broncos have to make up the difference. So some team can sign him for basically free, spend what they would have given to a starting quarterback (a lot) on other weapons, and essentially let the Broncos massively overpay their own quarterback. There’s a decent chance the team to do this will be the division-rival Las Vegas Raiders. Incredible.
Which is how we get to George Paton. He’s the GM of the Broncos, who pulled off the never-before-seen worst trade/worst contract daily double and yet somehow still has a job. Broncos fans must be thrilled. Ah. I see.
Weekend Reading
And the Oscar goes to … a better electoral system!
The Academy Awards are handed out Sunday, which probably isn’t going to be all that exciting because Oppenheimer is expected to win almost all the big awards. But I heard an interesting interview with an Academy type this week on the Oscar balloting system. Since 2009, they have used ranked-choice voting to select nominees for all categories, and also in the voting for Best Picture, because it’s the only category with more than five nominees. Ranked-choice advocates argue it’s much better way to ‘elect’ winners than our stupid first-past-the-post system, and I think it’s pretty cool to see the way it plays out in real life, even if the Oscars are relatively low-stakes. This piece explains the whole deal better than I could.
Fun with renderings
Artists’ depictions of a proposed new stadium are always fanciful, but the ones released this week for the potential Las Vegas home of the Oakland A’s are something else. You will note in the photo above that the ultra-futuristic dome thingy does not appear to have a lighting system of any kind. Or bullpens. And hardly any seats in the outfield? Anyway, this relocation play is going great.