Linebacker Lorenzo Alexander has retired from football. He continues to be a member of the NFL Players Association’s Executive Committee. The combination gives him both insight into the ongoing labor dynamics along with perhaps less concern about sharing information publicly.

Appearing Sunday on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Alexander explained the disconnect between the Executive Committee negotiating the deal that currently is being considered by the league, while also voting 6-5 not to recommend the deal to union membership.

“A lot of guys were part of the initial conversations, especially in the offseason,” Alexander said. “Then once the season started, obviously you had to go to football. And I think through that time, the process as far as where we’re at I think some guys feel like we can get more, and I think that’s what it’s more about. It’s not like we were a part of the process, now we don’t like it. I think some guys have different opinions as far as what we can get and the leverage that we may still have or may not have. And so that’s in discussion as well. And so the owners said, ‘This is our best offer.’ And some guys may feel a certain type of away about that, and some guys may feel a different way. So I think that’s more of where you get the disconnect as far as it being a split. And that’s how diverse our group is, once again.”

That’s an important quote. Beyond confirming the reality that the current offer isn’t the league’s first offer but the result of months of negotiation (and eventual agreement) with the Executive Committee, Alexander has confirmed that some members of the Executive Committee are resisting the current deal simply because they think they can go back to the table and ask for more.

This will make the NFL’s position in response to the effort to undo and redo a deal that the league considers to be done so important. Will the league say, “Gentlemen, we already have negotiated this deal, the only question is whether your members will honor it”? Or will the league say, “OK, we’ll rip up this deal and redo the terms and give you another deal and then risk that you’ll come back again and ask to rip it up in order to get even more”?

Alexander’s comments suggest that the union is simply trying at this point to get a better deal, recognizing that there’s no cost in trying — but that there’s a huge potential cost in eventually trying to endure a work stoppage.

“We have to kind of continue to work through this process,” Alexander said. “But once the vote [of the board of player representatives] comes down, one way or the other, everybody will be rowing together, obviously with the board of reps and then once the players get ahold of it as far as what they want to do. Now, do you feel like we can get some other things if we wait and continue to put pressure on the league? Maybe, maybe not. And so I think people always think about the positive things that you may be able to do if you kind of go further, but there’s also a reality of missing games as well. And so again like I said you’re affecting more than just yourself. You’re affecting 2,000 guys, guys that where our average career is only three years but you’re asking now a guy, several guys really, to miss a whole year of work or whatever it may be if that’s what it turns out to be whether it’s a lockout or a strike to kind of go through something like that, right? For me that’s hard to do, but that’s why we’re in this position to make those type of decisions. But that’s why it’s always so contentious and so tight, because there is so many factors that you have to kind of think about when you’re trying to make a significant decision like we are trying to make now.”

In the coming days, we’ll find out whether the NFL and NFLPA can work this out, or whether they can’t. If they can’t, we’ll find out whether the NFL meant what it said when the owners voted to quit trying to strike a new deal until the current CBA expires after the 2020 season.

And everything that that implies.