I'm not so sure that Russ GAVE Denver a cap friendly deal. If Denver's coach is the genius on offense that everyone claims, I'm sure he sees the truth about Russ that is obvious for all but those who choose not to see it.
No way his play is worth being the highest paid for 5 years, a la D Watson.
His deal is basically 3 years, $124 million.
It's not like he had a strong leg to stand on. If the negotiations failed, then the narrative is that Denver wanted to wait and see. Why would they want to wait and see what their savior could do... when he's already been annointed their savior.
And im sure Russ didn't want to risk playing a season under his hand picked offensive genius and then do no better, or maybe even perform worse than he's played in the past.
They gave him on paper, a few nickels more than what he was making, and on paper, he looks like he got a fat, but not unreasonable deal.
If Russ truly was the all conquering, mvp snub he paints himself as, hed have been worth far more than 41 mil a year. Granted, with incentives, it slides up to a more likely 4 years, 160, but even then...its not really the 49 mil a year nugget it reads like on paper.