Russell Wilson’s Inner Circle Keeps Shrinking as He Loses Trust of Another NFL Figure After Mike Tomlin

The calendar read 2022 when Russell Wilson landed on the Denver depth chart, a desperate Hail Mary for a franchise drowning in defeat with six straight playoff absences. Hope flickered when they courted him with grand promises, swearing, “We’ll do whatever it takes, we’ll do whatever it takes,” without the blink of an eye. Everyone assumed it was a golden ticket to revival. But beneath the glittering pledges, trouble was brewing. Now, revelations have torn the veil wide open. Dreams of loyalty lured the quarterback, only to find a knife waiting at his back. 

In a now-viral news story, the NFL was flagged for facing bigger issues like colluding against players, hitting them where it hurts the most. According to Pablo Torre and Mike Florio, Commissioner Roger Goodell approved a quiet push for teams to limit guaranteed contracts. The owners reportedly discussed this at the March 2022 meeting.

That claim came from an arbitrator ruling on a collusion case between the NFL and the NFLPA. Neither side made the decision public. Pablo Torre revealed the details Tuesday morning. In a video posted on X, he shared how it affected Wilson, “The most interesting part is the fact that the new co-owner of the Broncos, Walmart CEO Greg Penner, forwarded Denver’s final contract offer to Russell Wilson to two of his fellow members of Broncos ownership with the following message: Quote, ‘If we can get this done, Broncos general manager George Payton feels very good about it for us as a franchise and a benchmark it sets versus Watson for the rest of the league.’” That line shows the Broncos were thinking beyond just winning games.

“Here is the Broncos ownership celebrating what’s good for them, but also for their competitors,” Pablo said. The moment pointed to deeper problems with how the union worked versus how it was supposed to work. Wilson felt blindsided by both the Broncos and the players’ union. He had expected backing from NFLPA president JC Tretter. Instead, the Broncos and the players’ union deliberately pushed him out. According to a report, Tretter believed Wilson, quote, “Instead of being the guy that made guaranteed contracts the norm, he’s the guy that ruined it for everyone.”

Wilson also shared how quickly the tone flipped almost overnight. “Maybe within the next 10 days or so, they started getting cold feet on doing this fully guaranteed thing,” he said. The ask was a seven-year, fully guaranteed $50 million-per-year deal, but instead he was stuck with a five-year contract with Denver worth up to $245 million. Pablo added, “By hiding all of that, if it’s true that it was just done to protect JC Tretter from having to deal with the blowback of saying what he said about Russell Wilson, that in and of itself to me is inexcusable if that’s true.” The NFLPA argued the league discouraged guaranteed contracts to limit fair market value.

Names like Wilson, Lamar Jackson, and Kyler Murray were directly affected. In an X post, messages surfaced showing Chargers owner Dean Spanos praising Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill for avoiding a fully guaranteed deal with Kyler Murray. Spanos hinted that this move could make it easier for the Chargers to negotiate Justin Herbert’s contract.

For Russell Wilson, the damage continued on the field. The Broncos went for a disappointing 11-19 with him under center. They missed the playoffs in both seasons. But his bad luck seemed to have followed him there, too. Later traded in Pittsburgh, Wilson praised the Steelers, saying, “The Pittsburgh Steelers organization, man. It’s been such a blessing to be here.” But after the Steelers’ 28-14 playoff collapse against the Ravens, even Mike Tomlin didn’t hold back. “Like our effort, it wasn’t good enough,” he said. His one-year stint was reflective of how he couldn’t gain Tomlin’s trust when, in the 2025 draft, he ended up in the Giants.

A 36-year-old veteran quarterback with nine Pro Bowl nods and multiple NFL records couldn’t escape the fallout of a serious misstep.

Did the NFL encourage this collusion?

When the Browns gave Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million deal in 2022, the league reacted fast. That five-year contract made waves. The NFL did not want guaranteed contracts like this to become the new normal. Especially not for veteran players looking for extensions. This concern quickly made its way into league meetings. According to Pablo Torre and confirmed by Mike Florio, it all came to a head in March 2022.

At that year’s NFL owners meeting, an important conversation took place. Arbitrator Christopher Droney later confirmed that the NFL Management Council told all 32 teams to cut back on guaranteed money. Veteran contracts were the focus. The council pushed teams to reduce guarantees during new deals. And this message had the green light from the top. “There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners’ meeting,” Droney wrote. That line made it clear: Roger Goodell approved the plan. The league wanted to stop the Watson deal from becoming a blueprint.

Despite all this, the ruling still went in favor of the NFL. Arbitrator Droney admitted there was evidence of a plan. But he said that the union could not prove that all teams followed it. The NFL won the case because there wasn’t enough hard proof that every club went along. Droney said the evidence didn’t meet the “clear preponderance” standard.

Still, the ruling exposed something big. The league tried to steer contract negotiations behind the scenes. And Goodell supported that effort. Whether each team followed the message is up for debate. But what is clear is that the league worked to keep contracts like Watson’s from becoming the standard across the field.