All kinds of things are happening in the NFL right now. The draft is right around the corner. Free agency is officially still in play, although the signings are few.
New coaches are getting settled in. Players are on vacation in exotic places like Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Nassau.
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And NFL owners are being accused of collusion.
Last Friday, a three-person committee upheld an arbitrator’s decision regarding several player contracts, such as Russell Wilson,
Lamar Jackson, and former Cardinals signalcaller Kyler Murray.
These players and their agents were asserting that the NFL owners as a whole had banded together in order to circumvent negotiations on these players’ contracts and had violated the collective bargaining agreement by colluding in contract negotiations. The timetable was right after QB Deshaun Watson was traded from the Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns with that record, monster contract he signed.
Following the new deal, which guaranteed Watson the entirety of the $230 million deal, the other three quarterbacks had begun their own negotiations and were met with a ton of resistance from their respective teams.
All of them wanted fully guaranteed contracts as well, and all three were rebuffed in that respect. The NFL Players’ Association asserted that the owners of the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, and Denver Broncos met and decided to create a unified front.
The situation went before arbitrator Christopher Droney in January 2025, and he found no collusion or malice. This time around, the litigation was on overturning Droney’s decision.
The case brought before Droney was centered on whether Watson’s $230 million agreement had any effect on the negotiations of all three quarterbacks and their new contract talks. None of the three signed fully guaranteed deals.
The NFLPA wanted the NFL owners to be guilty of violating the CBA by the act of colluding during contract discussions. However, it was ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove teams took part in any type of collusion.
Murray is now with the Minnesota Vikings and will be playing this upcoming season on the NFL veteran minimum.
