Russell Wilson's Negotiations With Broncos Revealed Strong Evidence Of Collusion

System Arbitrator Christopher Droney had no choice but to find that the NFL tried to get its teams to collude regarding guaranteed contracts, given the black-and-white clarity of the evidence. Regarding whether the teams followed the league's lead, Droney ignored strong circumstantial evidence.

Plenty of the evidence comes from the negotiations between the Broncos and quarterback Russell Wilson.

Wilson testified that, early in his discussions with the Broncos, he requested a seven-year, fully-guaranteed contract that would pay "around $50 million a year." The Broncos, said Wilson, "didn't blink."

The trade that sent Wilson to Denver became official on March 16, 2022. In the following days, something changed.

"I would say shortly after [the trade], maybe within the next ten days or so, they started getting cold feet on this fully guaranteed thing," Wilson testified in the hearing.

Coincidentally — or not — "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," as Droney concluded. The encouragement happened on March 28, only 12 days afer the Wilson trade was announced.

Is it really a surprise, then, that the Broncos backpedaled?

The backpedaling continued through August, when the team was sold to the Walton-Penner group. After the sale became final, a deal with Wilson was pursued.

The Broncos, despite Wilson's testimony that the team "didn't blink" at the prospect of a fully-guaranteed deal, took the position that a fully-guaranteed contract like Deshaun Watson's "was a non starter."

During the talks, Broncos owner Greg Penner told other members of the Denver ownership group that "there's not[h]ing in here that other owners will consider off market (e.g. like the Watson guarantees)." Later, Penner told his partners that G.M. George Paton "feels very good about it for us as a franchise and the benchmark it sets (versus Watson) for the rest of the league."

Those comments are as powerful as the smoking-gun text exchange between Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill regarding the Kyler Murray deal. They are circumstantial evidence of the existence of an agreement among owners to hold down guarantees, and of a desire by Penner and the Broncos to comply with it.

Why else would Penner care about other owners and other teams when negotiating a contract with Wilson? When Penner was the CEO of WalMart, did he care about the impact his decisions regarding key employee pay may have on Target's compensation structure for similar employees?

The evidence of collusion was right there. Droney blew it. There's no other way to put it.

And the NFL Players Association continues to blow it by not publicizing the contents of the 61-page ruling.