‘Why not wait?’ Greg Penner questioned giving Russell Wilson contract extension, per revealed NFL-NFLPA legal documents

The Denver Broncos’ trade for Russell Wilson in March 2022 was celebrated by most in Broncos Country when it happened. And even the contract extension given to the quarterback just before the 2022 season was lauded in plenty of circles, too.

But in the months leading up to the extension that gave Wilson $124 million in guarantees, one key figure had questions, as it turned out:

Greg Penner.

The man who is now the Broncos’ controlling owner and CEO hadn’t even spent a day running the team, and his instincts already gave him pause about giving the quarterback a new deal, as revealed in documents tied to an arbitrator’s ruling on a collusion case between the NFL and NFL Players Association made pubic by Pablo Torre and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

The NFLPA alleged that teams colluded to prevent players from receiving fully-guaranteed contracts similar to the one given by the Cleveland Browns to Deshaun Watson. The NFL officially won in the grievance filed by the NFLPA. Arbitrator Christopher Droney issued his ruling on Jan. 14.

Within the 61-page ruling are sections involving the Broncos and Wilson, as the quarterback wanted a guaranteed contract after waiving his no-trade clause to join the team in 2022 as part of a blockbuster trade that involved sacrificing a mountain of draft capital, including two first-round choices.

And the most eye-opening note involves a June 17, 2022 phone call between general manager George Paton and Penner regarding Wilson’s then-upcoming potential contract extension, and Penner’s handwritten notes, which were part of evidence in the case.

“Mr. Penner’s notes show that be questioned the urgency of a contract extension,” the document states. “He wrote, ‘2 years left on contract; why not wait?'”

In the negotiation, Penner and the Broncos believed Watson’s contract to be an “outlier,” rather than the norm. In the final summation, the Broncos’ reluctance to grant Wilson a guaranteed contract was not deemed to be a result of collusion, per the arbitrator.

“Mr. Penner’s emails to his ownershjp group about Mr. Wilson ‘s negotiation show that he was aware that other Clubs would be looking at the contract as a benchmark for future negotiations. These communications. are more in line with “independent responses to common stimuli or mere interdependence unaided by an advance understanding among the parties,” rather than participation in a collusive agreement,” the arbitrator wrote.

“… The Broncos believed that they had more leverage in negotiations because Mr. Wilson had two years remaining on his existing contract, and therefore there was not a strong incentive for them to accede to Mr. Wilson’s requests for a fully guaranteed contract,

“He was not in a similar situation to Mr. (Kirk) Cousins when he negotiated his fully guaranteed contract as a free agent, or Mr. Watson, who effectively was a free agent at the time of his contract signing with the Browns.

“Further, as explained above, while the emails sent by Mr. Penner indicated that he was aware of the precedent that Mr. Wilson’s contract might set for the rest of the League, the emails do not suggest that in attempting to limiting Mr. Wilson’s guaranteed compensation, the Bronco Were fulfilling a collusive agreement struck al the March 2022 owners’ meeting.

“The evidence does not show by a clear preponderance that there was a collusive agreement to prevent Wilson from receiving a fully guaranteed contract.”

And by holding firm on not giving Wilson the fully-guaranteed deal, the Broncos prevented a bad situation — one that hamstrung them last year — from doing further damage to their cap.

FULL TEXT OF THE SECTION ON THE BRONCOS AND RUSSELL WILSON FROM THE ARBITRATOR’S RULING:

In 2022, after a career as a Super Bowl-winning and All-Pro quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, Mr, Wilson decided to waive the no-trade clause of his existing contract so that he could play for the Denver Broncos. Mr. Wilson testified that early in the discussions with the Broncos he requested a seven-year fully guaranteed contract of around $50 million a year and “[t]bey didn’t blink.” As Mr. Wilson explained, “They kept saying, ‘We’ll do whatever it takes. We’ll do whatever it takes.'” However, after he waived his no-trade clause and his trade to the Broncos became public, ‘I would say shortly after, maybe within the next ten days or so, they started getting cold feet on doing this fully guaranteed thing. It seemed like it.” The Broncos changed ownership of the team after they traded for Mr. Wilson and they cou1d not sign him to a new contract until the new ownership group was approved by the other NFL owners at their August 2, 2022 meeting,

On June 17 2022, Rich Hurtado, the Broncos’ vice president of football administration emailed General Manager George Paton a series of talking points for an upcoming phone call with Mr. Penner, soon-to-be an owner and CEO of the Broncos. The talking points indicated that the Broncos believed they had “the leverage” in the Wilson negotiations. He also noted that they did not “forsee any of the owners [of teams with top quarterbacks with upcoming deals] matching or exceeding Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed money.” A few days later, Mr. Paton texted Mr. Penner about a discussion he had with Mark Rodgers, Wilson’s Agent. He said he “once again told [Mr. Rodgers] that D. Watson was a non starter.”

Mr. Penner’s handwritten notes show that he questioned the urgency of a contract extension. He wrote, “2 years left on contract; why not wait?” At the same time, the notes indicate that there were reasons to get a deal done, particularly if they could agree to one that was not “all guaranteed” given the “outlier” Watson contract. At the evidentiary hearing, Mr. Penner testified that Mr. Watson’s contract “was a complete outlier versus the other contracts that had been done” and believed “that it was off market and we weren’t going to do something in line with that.”

During negotiations, Mr. Wilson chose to submit a non-fully guaranteed offer to the Broncos, though he testified that he considered it to be effectively fully guaranteed. Mr. Penner reported on the negotiations to two other members of the ownership group. On one occasion, when forwarding one of the Broncos’ offers, he mentioned that “[t]here’s not[h]ing in here that other owners will consider off market (e.g. like the Watson guarantees).” When forwarding the Broncos’ final proposal, he noted that the guaranteed money in the deal they were proposing “is far less than Watson. If we can get this done, George [Paton] feels very good about it for us as a franchise and the benchnnark it sets (versus Watson) for the rest of the league.”

On September 1, 2022, Mr. Wilson signed a five·-year. $245 million contract extension with $124 million fully guaranteed at signing with injury injury and springing guarantees.

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