Report: NFLPA's Grievance Claiming NFL Colluded on Guaranteed Contracts Is Ongoing

With Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson playing like the league MVP, the topic of collusion from NFL team owners has been under the spotlight.

With that as the backdrop, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported Thursday that the grievance filed by the NFL Players Association in November 2022 is still pending. In the grievance, the NFLPA alleged that teams responded to the Cleveland Browns giving Deshaun Watson a fully-guaranteed five-year, $230 million by agreeing not to do so with "certain quarterbacks" moving forward.

Typically, such landmark contracts serve as a starting point for future negotiations with similar players at similar positions.

That would mean, in turn, that future contracts for headline quarterbacks would likely be fully guaranteed since Watson's was with the Browns. Yet teams agreeing among themselves not to offer such contracts in a way to limit the free market for players beyond what is already in the collective bargaining agreement would prevent that from happening.

Kalyn Kahler of The Athletic reported in November 2022 that NFL general counsel Jeff Pash sent a memo to teams around the league making them aware the NFLPA filed a claim alleging collusion was ongoing in regards to fully guaranteed contracts.

The NFLPA said "(t)he expectation was that fully-guaranteed contracts would now become the competition driven norm for the top players in the League, including quarterbacks, negotiating new contracts."

However, it also alleged that "before, during and after" ownership meetings that year the "NFL owners and/or League executives discussed not agreeing to any additional player contracts with fully-guaranteed salaries."

That grievance is still ongoing more than a year later.

In terms of Jackson, the Ravens placed the nonexclusive franchise tag on him this past offseason. Quarterback needy teams could have made him an offer and landed Jackson for the money and two first-round picks if Baltimore decided not to match it.

While two first-round picks is not nothing, Jackson is one of the best players in the league and just 26 years old. Considering the Browns moved three first-rounders in their efforts to land Watson and the Carolina Panthers gave up two first-rounders to move up and draft Bryce Young, it seems feasible for teams to pay that price for Jackson.

However, ESPN's Adam Schefter revealed in a reply to a comment from NFL Network's Rich Eisen that no team even approached the Ravens about making such a move:

Florio argued that lack of interest in the quarterback "had everything to do with advancing ownership's not-so-subtle collusion when it comes to players, coaches, and pretty much anyone/everyone else on the payroll."

There are surely some teams that probably wish they would have been more aggressive in their pursuit of Jackson at this point.

His Ravens have the best record in the NFL at 12-3, and he could be well on his way to a second career MVP award. He has completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 3,357 yards, 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions while adding 786 yards and five scores on the ground.

That production likely would have been worth two first-round picks.