Russell Wilson, the quarterback for the Broncos, has had a fantastic week. But it wasn't quite as good as it could have been.
There has been no alteration to his new seven-year, $296 million contract with the Broncos. However, he is not quite as close to $50 million per year as assumed in terms of where he stands on the much-ballyhooed new-money average rankings.
According to a league source, Wilson's new contract did not account for the value of the 17th game checks to which he was due for the two years left on his deal. His $19 million basic salary for 2022 was $20,117,647 since he would have received one more $1,117,647 game check under his previous contract. He would have received $23,294,117 in 2023 rather than $22 million (his adjusted base given his earned escalator).
The 2020 CBA increased the number of regular season games from 16 to 17, giving players with pre-existing contracts an additional weekly game check worth 1/17th of their prior wage because they got 17 checks during a 16-game season (16 games and one bye-week check).
Wilson had $43,411,764 in actual cash as opposed to the $41 million base salaries he had in old money. Due to this, the deal's new money went from $245 million to $242,588,236. Thus, the new-money average decreased from $49 million to $48.517 million.
Once more, it has no impact on the $296 million total payoff spread over seven years. However, it significantly alters how the highest-paid quarterbacks should be ranked by annual new-money average, with the difference between Aaron Rodgers and Wilson coming in at roughly $500,000 more than originally anticipated.
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