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Collusion Claims About Lamar Jackson Are Expected, But Unfounded

Indianapolis Colts v Baltimore Ravens

Photo: Getty Images

Today on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, after the Baltimore Ravens placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Lamar Jackson, a number of quarterback-needy teams immediately said they weren't interested in pursuing a deal with the former unanimous MVP. Even though this made claims of collusion seem obvious, the truth is no team wants to offer guaranteed money equal to that of Deshaun Watson and other strategies might be at play.

Brady Quinn: "No one wants to be able to be shoving out fully guaranteed contracts like what Deshaun Watson got but I don't think you need to collude necessarily to have every other owner go out there and say they're not interested or they made an offer but it wasn't an offer that Lamar was willing to accept. If there is collusion going on, it's ignorant on the part of the owners because I don't think they need to do that...
It's gonna be fascinating to see who makes an offer, what deals are out there, or if a lot of other teams are giving him the same feedback that the Baltimore Ravens gave in regards to looking for a long term deal."
LaVar Arrington: "There may be a couple teams that don't want to take a risk on what the injury scenario would be, that's fine. But for there not to be one team that says that this is worth two first round draft picks to bring this guy in and hammer out a deal, something is incorrect. I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to put two and two together in this equation and know that something is incorrect if a team doesn't want to improve by bringing in a rare talent like Lamar Jackson."
Jonas Knox: "Could one of these teams like the Falcons, the Panthers or other teams that have been rumored that aren't interested in Lamar Jackson, could it be as simple as they were asked a question and they don't want to tip their hand? They're just gonna say they're not interested because maybe they're trying to look at other options like a draft pick or something else like that?
I think that the NFLPA and how quickly players reacted to it leads me to believe that they expected that this was going to happen, that they already had the collusion card ready to be pulled."