Every time Lamar Jackson advocates for himself, he shows us why he shouldn’t be the one doing it. He is clapping back against critics on Twitter, demanding respect and fair value and defending his toughness. He could be right on every single point. It doesn’t matter. He is fighting the wrong fights with the wrong people, and all he is really proving is that this is why players hire agents.
Jackson did not have an agent when he declined the Ravens’ contract offers last year, and he does not have one now, as he sits in franchise-tag purgatory. That is his right, just as it is his right to demand a fully guaranteed contract, or to insist on being the highest-paid player in the NFL if he chooses. (To be clear, there is no indication he has insisted upon that.) Jackson knows the NFL is a chew-’em-up-and-spit-’em-out league, where relationships are transactional, friends fire friends and loyalty is a no-way street. He wants to get the most he can while he can. Completely understandable. Good for him. Saving the 3% agent fee (or even less, if an agent gave him a discount) is just not the way to go about it.
Negotiations are not just about value. They are about positioning, and to be blunt: A lot of the positioning is against the rules. An agent definitely would have advised Jackson on whether to accept the Ravens’ best offers, probably could have squeezed the team to offer more, and almost certainly would have come up with other, creative structures.
