NFL encouraged owners to cheat players out of guaranteed money

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DeShaun Watson, Russell Wilson, and the NFLPA’s failure to prove NFL owners colluded

In March 2022, the Cleveland Browns signed quarterback DeShaun Watson to a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract. A few days later, the NFL encouraged teams to not continue the trend of fully guaranteeing contracts in the future. It’s a clear case of collusion among the NFL’s 32 owner groups, but neither side wanted to see it come to light, and the arbitrator ruled it was a big nothingburger, so it’s remained buried.

On Tuesday, Pablo Torres of Pablo Torres Finds Out and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk released information saying that the NFL colluded but the arbitrator essentially said it was okay.

Let’s get into what all of this means.

What is collusion among NFL owners and why is it bad?

Collusion among NFL owners is where the 32 ownership groups all decide they are going to implement some policy across the league without it being negotiated in the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union. In this case, it unfairly keeps guaranteed money from being on the table in contracts.

NFL player contracts aren’t fully guaranteed

NFL contracts are not guaranteed by default and that language must be added in negotiations. If a player is cut with no guaranteed money left on their deal, teams don’t have to pay it. In most cases, if a player is cut with guaranteed money still remaining, the team has to pay it. By colluding to not fully guarantee veteran contracts, this is a violation of the agreement and purposefully keeps money from players.

Every other major sports league has fully guaranteed contracts, for the record.

It should be noted that the NFLPA did push for all contracts to be fully guaranteed in the most recent CBA but they were unable to include those terms in the deal signed in 2020.

Why did the arbitrator say this case wasn’t collusion among NFL owners?

Per Florio, arbitrator Christopher Droney wrote in his January 2025 ruling that “there is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners’ meeting.”

What the NFLPA was not able to prove is that the NFL owners actually followed the advice. Feels like a pretty thin line when literally none of the contracts signed since Watson have been even close to fully guaranteed. (This excludes first-round pick contracts, which are fully guaranteed in the league’s collective bargaining agreement and a pair of second-rounders in 2025.)

Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Russell Wilson, and a lot of players with massive amounts of leverage have come to the negotiating table since. Allen has the most fully guaranteed money at $147 million, but that’s more than $80 million less than Watson signed for in 2022. Allen was coming off an MVP season and still couldn’t get anywhere close to Watson who was coming off a huge controversy and hadn’t played football in more than a year.

It didn’t pass the smell test then, which is why Florio has been digging since 2022.

Why did the NFL not want this collusion case public?

The arbitrator said the NFL attempted to collude, but couldn’t. Not exactly a great look when you can’t get your 32 ownership groups on board together.

It also doesn’t make sense to rub the NFLPA’s nose in the ruling when they are about to negotiate for an 18-game NFL season. It looks bad for future negotiations and they were clearly wrong in this case despite the legal ruling.

Why did the NFLPA not want this collusion case public?

There are actually a few reasons the NFLPA wouldn’t want this publicized despite the underhanded tactics used by the NFL. The biggest is that the NFLPA failed to actually prove the collusion led to the intended result, despite there being ample anecdotal evidence that league owners curtailed guaranteed spending. Big fail.

There is another reason that wasn’t spelled out in the arbitrator’s report, but was detailed by Torres. There were documents and testimony that look bad for the NFLPA brass in regards to their conversations about players, specifically president JC Tretter.

Russell Wilson signed a new deal with the Denver Broncos in September 2022 and it was the first high-leverage QB contract negotiated after Watson’s. The deal was for $242,588,236 but only $124 million was fully guaranteed at signing — barely half the total value and a significant departure from Watson despite them using similar five-year valuations.

When Wilson didn’t push for a fully guaranteed contract in the aftermath of Watson’s signing, some in the NFLPA didn’t like that, with NFLPA president JC Tretter calling Wilson names via text message. While Watson established the precedent, Wilson was a key test case to uphold it and in the eyes of at least Tretter, he failed not only himself but other players down the line.

Wilson’s team used rolling guaranteed money instead, but it was never triggered because Denver unceremoniously cut Wilson just two seasons into his stint with the Broncos. They were on the hook for just the $124 million, highlighting why fully guaranteed money is better than future rolling guarantees.

Outside of two second-round picks in 2025, no player has even come close to adding a full guarantee to an NFL contract since that meeting.