Now that you’re done with the inside story of Aaron Rodgers’s trade negotiation and the six players fans need to know in the 2024 draft, here are my takeaways as we enter a slower time in the NFL calendar …
The Lamar Jackson deal is evolutionary, not revolutionary. And the side-by-side of his deal and the deal Jalen Hurts did bears that out, with the caveat that Hurts’s deal was an extension (and folded $1.43 million in cash due for 2023 in with five new years), whereas Jackson’s deal was done from scratch (almost without regard for the franchise tag total).
• The first three years (over $106 million) in Hurts’s deal are fully guaranteed now, as are the first three years of Lamar Jackson’s deal ($156 million). That takes both through 2025.
