Russell Wilson signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers after being released by the Denver Broncos. His former team will pay him $37 million more than his current team to play against them on their home field in 2024.

That’s a real thing that will happen next season.

It is not guaranteed that Wilson is going to start for the Steelers. He will have to beat out Kenny Pickett during training camp to earn that role. Nothing is guaranteed.

Regardless of whether Mike Tomlin goes with the third-year first round pick or the 13th-year Super Bowl champion as his starter, Wilson will travel to Colorado this fall. The Broncos are going to pay him a lot of money to be there.

In fact, they will pay him more money than the NFL team they are playing!

Denver released Wilson last week. Pittsburgh signed Wilson on Sunday.

According to the Associated Press, the latter is reportedly going to pay him the veteran minimum of $1.21 million. The former will have to cover the remainder of the $39 million that he is owed for this upcoming season. That is a total of more than $37 million!

Should Wilson win the Steelers’ starting job, a unique scenario is set to unfold.

The NFL regular season consists of 17 games. Denver will pay Russell Wilson approximately $2.1 million per game during the 2024/25 season. Pittsburgh will pay him approximately $70,589 per game.

Thus, the Broncos will pay Wilson about $2 million more than the Steelers for Wilson to be the (starting or backup) quarterback of the Steelers when they play the Broncos. That’s crazy.

It’s similar to a buy game in college athletics.

Wilson has a chance to beat Denver, in Denver, while getting paid by Denver to play for Pittsburgh. Chew on that one!