David Mulugheta, the agent of Cleveland Browns’ quarterback Deshaun Watson, thinks NFL teams are colluding on Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson after the club placed the franchise tag on the 2019 league MVP.
Last year, Mulugheta got the Browns to controversially sign Watson to a massive five-year deal worth $230 million, with every penny of it guaranteed. NFL owners obviously weren’t happy with that deal, so it’s not surprising that allegations of collusion involving Jackson are quickly arising.
With the franchise tag placed on Jackson, it ensures that he won’t hit the open market when free agency begins on Mar. 15. The Ravens can now work on an extension or explore a trade for their franchise star.
ESPN’s Field Yates reported that the Washington Commanders, Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers and Las Vegas Raiders will not be pursuing a trade for Jackson. And now, the 26-year-old Jackson is dominating the NFL trade rumor mill.
On Tuesday, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio opined that there’s collusion going on between NFL clubs and Jackson:
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
The pattern is troubling. It suggests that the teams are avoiding ever getting to the point where they’d decline giving Jackson a fully-guaranteed Deshaun Watson-style contract because they’ll never even talk to Jackson. They’re just not interested.
Don’t call us. We’ll call you. Unless we don’t.
It reeks of collusion. It reeks as much as the collusion that happened with Colin Kaepernick. It reeks as much as the collusion that has gone of for a long, long time regarding the money given to coaches. It reeks as much as the collusion that plainly occurred during the uncapped year of 2010, when the Cowboys and Washington later got whacked for daring to treat the uncapped year as uncapped…
Now, after the NFL Players Association already has filed a grievance alleging collusion in the refusal to give fully-guaranteed contracts to “certain quarterbacks,” teams that otherwise should be at least talking to a former MVP who is available for two first-round picks have made it known to the world not to bother connection them to Lamar.
We all know what’s going on. And we also know that, when push comes to shove, the collusion will never be proven.
Jackson was never expected to hit the free agent market. The Ravens now assure themselves of receiving valuable assets in return if they end up trading away the No. 32 pick of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Jackson owns an impressive career record of 45-16-0 with 12, 209 passing yards, 101 passing
touchdowns, 38 interceptions, 4,437 rushing yards and 24 rushing touchdowns. One way or another, he’s going to change the NFL landscape drastically in 2023.
