The world will never know whether the Cowboys and Broncos impermissibly compared notes on their negotiations with receivers Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas, respectively. (The teams officially deny it.) Through their agents, the players definitely did.
It’s permissible for players and agents to collude. In this specific case, coordination between Bryant and Thomas became a no-brainer because their agents, Tom Condon and Todd France, now work together at CAA.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the two agents took full advantage of their new relationship to shake five-year, $70 million deals from two teams that, before Wednesday, hadn’t gotten close to the $14 million annual average that two years under the franchise tag dictated for both players.