Over the past several months, fully-guaranteed contracts have been a major source of conversation after the Cleveland Browns gave new quarterback Deshaun Watson a fully-guaranteed deal this offseason resulting in Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson reportedly seeking a similar contract for himself – which the team is seemingly unwilling to offer.
Following news of Watson’s contract with the Browns, many expected fully-guaranteed contracts to become more commonplace around the NFL, but that hasn’t happened. In fact, teams and owners have seemingly become even more reluctant to even consider those contracts. And the NFLPA thinks there’s a reason for that.
The NFLPA has filed a collusion claim against the NFL owners, alleging that the teams agreed to not make fully-guaranteed contracts available to certain quarterbacks.
Here’s what NFL insider and analyst Mike Florio had to say about the claim at Pro Football Talk:
The collusion claim, based on (NFL general counsel Jeff) Pash’s memo, contends that NFL owners and/or executives discussed at an August 9 ownership meeting not agreeing to additional player contracts with fully-guaranteed salaries. The union will need to prove that something along those lines happened; otherwise, the league will simply argue that the teams independently decided that they wouldn’t follow Cleveland’s lead.
The memo also notes that the NFLPA is not exercising its right to attempt to terminate the Collective Bargaining Agreement, if a violation is proven.
There NFLPA will obviously have to prove their claim if any action will be taken, but it’s certainly a big step.
