Jackson isn’t getting another cent. They actually stopped paying him the instant he went on NFI, perhaps a hint that they didn’t believe his agent’s mental illness claim told the whole story.
Anderson has $1.23M “fully guaranteed,” which is misleading because that only means guaranteed for cap, skill, and (football) injury. The team can most likely release him without paying those guarantees if he’s still limited by his illness. They could also just pay that money out of good will, given that it’s basically irrelevant in the big picture and that Anderson made every attempt to contribute sandwiched between his two instances of illness that required hospitalization.
Non-football illness is pretty rare, so I’m not aware of examples of it voiding guaranteed money. It happens more often with non-football injuries, though. Nyheim Hines was injured in a jet ski accident last offseason, and the Bills not only withheld his salary but also pursued recouping his signing bonus. Ju’Wuan James tore his Achilles while working out on his own in 2021, and the Broncos voided his $15M guarantees by successfully arguing that his guarantees didn’t cover injuries while working out on his own during the offseason, only if it’s in the team facility.
In the case of actual football injuries, a player is entitled to their salary for the duration of the season or that injury (whichever is shorter), any future injury guarantees, and up to $2.1M from the injury protection benefit. The injury protection benefit applies to players with 4 years of experience who suffered serious injuries that will keep them out into the beginning of the following season, who were under contract but were released. In that case, the team has to pay their salary (up to the max of $2.1M) the following season despite releasing them. That will likely come into play for Nick Chubb, who the Browns can’t possibly keep on the roster at his salary after that serious of an injury. But he’ll get $2.1M.
