During his end-of-season press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Denver Broncos general manager George Paton was asked if he threatened to bench Russell Wilson last October if the quarterback did not agree to make changes to his contract.
Paton said that he had a “good faith” contract negotiation with Wilson’s agent (Mark Rodgers) during the bye week and dropped it after they were not able to reach an agreement. Payton went on to say that Wilson’s benching a few months later was “independent” of the contract discussions, a football decision made by coach Sean Payton.
Asked again if Wilson was specifically threatened with being benched if an agreement was not reached, Paton did not specifically deny the threat. Paton repeatedly said that he had a “good faith” discussion with Rodgers, but he would not reveal details of those discussions.
Interestingly, Paton also said that the door remains open for the possibility of Wilson remaining with the team in 2024. That seems unlikely, especially if the Broncos did threaten to bench him over his contract, something Wilson has said did happen. Paton won’t comment on whether or not such a threat actually happened.
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