Earlier this year, the Ravens put the non-exclusive franchise tag on QB Lamar Jackson, essentially meaning the team can match any free agent offers the former MVP may receive at htat time. One by one, reports srfaced that multiple teams would not pursue him. That was weird.
The interest in Jackson was non-existent and no one could understand why.
Fast forward to the end of the year and NFL owners are once again being accused of colluding against Lamar Jackson following his performance against the San Francisco 49ers where he finished with 297 total yards and two passing touchdowns, while MVP favorite Brock Purdy threw four interceptions.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggested the owners were colluding to keep quarterback salaries down when they seemingly banned together to make sure he did not get his fully guaranteed contract.
“But the failure of quarterback-needy teams to not take a second look at Lamar had nothing to do with making a given team more competitive. It 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.”
“…Similar to the shunning of Colin Kaepernick, teams whispered a laundry list of false narratives to reporters, in the hopes of covering up the basic reality that the owners wanted to stop other owners from duplicating or expanding the practice of giving veteran players five-year fully-guaranteed contracts,” he added later.
NFL owners were reportedly pissed over Deshaun Watson signing a massive contract extension with the Cleveland Browns after they acquired him from the Houston Texans. His deal paid him $230 million guaranteed. They knew other players would start asking for similar deals and they wanted to make sure they put an end to it.
In the meantime, Lamar Jackson took control of the MVP race.
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The 26-year-old is tied for 14th in touchdown passes (19) and completion percentage (66.3) and is 15th in passing yards (3,357).
