When the Cleveland Browns handed Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract in 2022, it didn’t just stun the league. It also disrupted the quarterback market in ways that sent ripple effects through every front office. What followed, as recent findings now suggest, was an alleged coordinated effort from NFL leadership to rein in the escalating trend of fully guaranteed deals. And in the middle of it all stood Lamar Jackson.
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Despite being a former MVP, still in his prime, and placed on a non-exclusive franchise tag in 2023 — meaning teams were allowed to negotiate directly with him — not a single franchise made Jackson a proper, lucrative offer.
It was an unprecedented snub, especially given what the market had looked like just a year earlier, and more importantly, the prospect of signing the best dual-threat quarterback was at stake.
Like Shedeur Sanders’ shocking Draft slide to the fifth round recently, teams not lining up for Lamar Jackson’s signature doesn’t make any sense — a sentiment also shared by NFL insider Ari Meirov. “It made zero sense that he got no calls at all,” Meirov says in his latest video.
Meirov then reminded fans that just a year before, the Saints, Panthers, Falcons, and Browns were all competing to acquire Deshaun Watson, willing to trade multiple first-round picks and hand him a lucrative new deal. And yet, in 2023, that same energy disappeared for Lamar. “Clearly, he knew something was up,” the NFL insider added.
And now, we know what that “something” was.
As revealed in a newly surfaced report from independent arbitrator Christopher Droney — uncovered by Pablo Torre Finds Out — the NFL Management Council, with Roger Goodell’s approval, encouraged teams at the March 2022 owners’ meeting to curb the rising trend of fully guaranteed veteran contracts. It wasn’t just a suggestion; it was a strategy as per the report.
According to sources, owners were advised to hold the line. And while Droney ruled that there wasn’t enough hard evidence to prove collusion, the messaging was clear: Watson’s contract was to be the exception, not the new norm.
So when Jackson, who represents himself and doesn’t use an agent, hit the market under the non-exclusive tag, the entire league went quiet. And if Ari Meirov is to be believed, it was obvious to Jackson what was happening with him.
Even though the Ravens star later claimed he only ever wanted to stay in Baltimore, Meirov called that “more of a strategy” than the full truth.
Remember when zero teams contacted Lamar Jackson during the window they were allowed to in 2023? We now know owners were told to avoid fully guaranteed deals — and that’s likely why no one reached out. Lamar always wanted to stay in Baltimore, but these new details should disturb… https://t.co/aZik1qXHYN pic.twitter.com/QLrV09jKPi
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) June 25, 2025
In hindsight, the writing was on the wall. No interest, no calls, and no negotiations. The numbers were right, the age was right, and the résumé was elite. And despite all this, Lamar Jackson wasn’t getting a fully guaranteed deal, because maybe, no one was even allowed to try.
“To see that in text,” Meirov said, referring to the newly uncovered messages between owners, “and to know everything these owners said publicly was essentially just a bunch of word salad—I would imagine that probably disturbs [Lamar] a little bit.”
As Meirov summed it up, “Lamar always wanted to stay in Baltimore, but these new details should disturb every football fan.” Because this wasn’t about fit or need. It was about control.
