Great Deal: Raiders Head Coach Has Announced The New Signing….
While Russell Wilson isn’t the best quarterback available in the NFL this offseason the Super Bowl champion and nine-time Pro Bowl selection is generating significant interest from around the league. Ahead of NFL free agency, here’s the latest on where things stand with the veteran quarterback.
The Denver Broncos announced on March 4 that they would release Wilson at the start of the 2024 league year. Just a few years removed from trading multiple first-round picks to the Seattle Seahawks for him, Denver officially cut the cord on Wilson before the first year of his five-year $145 million contract extension kicked in.
Denver is left with an $85 million cap hit, the largest in NFL history and more than double the next closest dead-cap hits in league history. Meanwhile, as the Broncos’ front office trims the roster to deal with the sizable cap hit, their quarterback is generating plenty of interest on the open market.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote Sunday that while the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers have already met with Wilson, he doesn’t believe they’ll be the last to do so. While there are more in-demand quarterbacks in NFL free agency, Wilson’s contract situation makes him extremely attractive. The NFL insider also believes the Las Vegas Raiders are a team to “watch closely” for Wilson.
Related: Las Vegas Raiders free agent targets 2024
Regarding Pittsburgh’s interest, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN noted that it’s very real. The meeting he had in Pittsburgh with team officials was “very positive” and the expectation is that Wilson would be the Steelers starting quarterback in 2024 with Kenny Pickett as his backup.
Wilson is especially appealing to NFL teams because of the contract he will sign. The Broncos owe Wilson $39 million guaranteed this upcoming season, minus the value of the deal he signs with a new club. As a result, he’s ready to sign for close to the veterans minimum. Not only will this allow his new team to spend more on the surrounding roster, it also leaves Denver responsible for almost all of the money it owes him.
As a result, Wilson will be the cheapest starting quarterback in the NFL next season and make even less than quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. That’s one of the biggest reasons why he’s on the radar for teams like the Steelers, Giants and Raiders. For now, Pittsburgh seems like the favorite to land him but others remain involved.
Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Tyree Wilson was dealt a lousy hand going into his rookie season after suffering a season-ending injury in his collegiate campaign. Next season, Wilson will have a year under his belt and should be healthy going into training camp. With those factors and the support of 2023 Defensive Player of the Year finalist Maxx Crosby, Wilson has a great opportunity to prove to the league why he went in the Top 10 of the 2023 NFL Draft. “I know Tyree took some time; think about it, he didn’t have an offseason,” said Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce at the NFL Combine on Feb. 28. “Had surgery, couldn’t really work out, but boom, we throw him in the fire and he’s not quite there yet. And came up very strong at the end, and we talked about it, he said: ‘Listen, I’m going to take some time, go with my family.’
The Las Vegas Raiders’ 2023 first-round pick, defensive end Tyree Wilson (9), has the luxury of learning from one of the best edge rushers in the game — Maxx Crosby (98).© Stephen R. Sylvanie | 2024 Jan 7 © Stephen R. Sylvanie | 2024 Jan 7 “Which I think he needs to. But the one thing I do know is that he’s going to be back in here early in March before we get started April 15, and he’s going to be with Maxx. And that’s Maxx’s No. 1 job is to get and bring Tyree along, but that’s also Tyree’s job.
“Because we could want it, but Tyree’s got to want it as well, and I think he does because last year, he got humbled. When you’re the seventh pick overall and you don’t have the year that he expected to have, and you hear all the outside noise — and he knows it, it wasn’t good, hell no, it was ugly, it wasn’t pretty at the beginning, but that’s OK. He worked on it, he worked on it, and you saw the improvement. “And that’s the one thing you can say to yourself: ‘OK, there’s a gleam, a little glimmer of light that you think, going forward, that the light switch[ed].’ And you never know when that’s going to happen as a player, right? And especially as a rookie because they all come in, they’re alphas, they got money … but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, because if you don’t produce on Sundays, nobody cares.” The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently have the No. 13 overall pick.
