CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract from the Browns sent shockwaves throughout the NFL last month.
NFLPA president and former Browns center JC Tretter hopes the Watson contract sets a new benchmark and changes the way the league does business with players for good.
Sure, there have been fully guaranteed deals in the past – see Kirk Cousins’ three-year, fully guaranteed $84 million contract in 2018 – but not on the scale of what the Browns gave Watson.
“Thanks to Jimmy Haslam and Andrew Berry of the Browns for doing what other NFL owners and executives have mostly been unwilling to do, despite comments and reports of other NFL owners bemoaning the move,” Tretter wrote on the NFLPA’s website Tuesday.
Owners and GMs have hidden behind a funding rule, which requires teams place the balance of any guaranteed money following the first year of a contract into an escrow account, as to why they refuse to guarantee its largest contracts for star players.
In the Browns’ case, next spring the team will be required to place $184 million in cash into an escrow account to ensure Watson will be paid the balance of what is owed him over the final four years of the deal.
“We once again have proof that the funding rule is an artificial barrier to guaranteed money, and credit to David Mulugheta, Watson’s agent, for working with our union to push past it,” Tretter wrote.
The NFLPA unsuccessfully tried to have the rule, which was put in place years ago as part of the collective bargaining agreement as protection against teams defaulting on contracts, removed during the most recent round of negotiations in 2020.
With annual team revenues in the hundreds of million of dollars and league revenues exploding, Tretter continues to argue the rule is “archaic.”
“The question now becomes can we – agents, players and the union – work together to seize an opportunity and set a true standard for future players,” Tretter wrote. “Time will tell, but we hope that this becomes a turning point; one that our union stands ready to support.”