Even as the Ravens’ contract negotiations with Lamar Jackson drag on, with general manager Eric DeCosta reiterating Wednesday that the team will work “at Lamar’s urgency,” the quarterback’s unsettled future isn’t expected to affect his offseason availability in Baltimore.
In a session with local reporters at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, DeCosta said he’s never discussed the possibility of a contract-related holdout with a Ravens player. In recent weeks, some NFL analysts had urged Jackson, a two-time Pro Bowl selection and the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player, not to return to team activities until he has signed a lucrative extension. Jackson is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie contract.
“I think just in general, holdouts now for players are pretty problematic in a lot of ways,” DeCosta said Wednesday, referring to rules that, under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, allow for increased fines for players who hold out. “The players that are under contract, it’s just very hard to do that in general. The CBA made it very, very challenging for players under contract to hold out. I’ve never had those conversations with any of our players at this point.”
Discussions with Jackson remain “ongoing,” according to DeCosta. They’ve texted over the past month, but negotiations have not progressed significantly since last month, when DeCosta said the team was “working at Lamar’s pace.”
If the two sides cannot reach an agreement before next season, Jackson would play on his fifth-year option, valued at $23 million. A new deal would be the biggest in Ravens history and likely help the team clear several million dollars in much-needed salary cap space.
Asked whether negotiating a deal with such massive implications had a “learning curve,” DeCosta pointed to his experience finalizing top-of-the-market deals for Ravens standouts Marlon Humphrey, Ronnie Stanley and Mark Andrews. He did not, however, comment on the process for Jackson, one of the NFL’s few players without an agent. According to DeCosta, they’ve discussed a contract extension about a half-dozen times over the past year.
“I think that it takes two sides to actively put their heads together and get the deal worked out,” DeCosta said. “We are ready to be there for Lamar at any point when he decides that he really wants to work on it, we will be. We have an awesome relationship. We’re so excited about this opportunity coming up, the 2022 season, for him and for the club.”
A year ago, a new deal seemed inevitable. Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he was “totally certain” that Jackson would agree to a long-term contract, and DeCosta said he was “confident and committed” to signing Jackson to a megadeal. Jackson himself said in May that he would “love to be here forever.”
But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the NFL’s 2021 salary cap dropped by nearly $16 million, leaving Ravens officials with less wiggle room than expected. Jackson’s cap hit remained $3 million, a bargain-bin price for a game-changing talent. (The 2021 cap hit for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, by comparison, whose massive contract extension will pay him $43 million annually, jumped from $5.9 million to $10.2 million after he signed in August.)
Jackson’s disappointing 2021 reinforced his importance to the Ravens while raising doubts about his future with the franchise. Over the season’s opening month, he emerged as one of early front-runners for NFL MVP honors. Despite a slew of season-ending injuries, the Ravens entered Week 13 atop the AFC.
But Jackson was knocked out of an eventual Week 14 loss to the Cleveland Browns with a bone bruise in his right ankle and did not return to game action. The Ravens ended the season on a six-game losing streak and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2017. Jackson, hamstrung by accuracy problems, a banged-up offensive line and a leaky defense, finished with career-worst marks in interceptions, sacks and win-loss record (7-5 as a starter).
The Ravens’ disappointing 2021 has not tempered DeCosta’s excitement for 2022 and beyond. He said Wednesday that it was “exciting” to see a healthy Jackson practicing with wide receivers Rashod Bateman and James Proche II in California recently.
“He’s a guy that when we think about the Ravens three, four, five years from now, we envision Lamar being a very big part of that team and definitely a player that can help us win Super Bowls,” DeCosta said.
He recalled how, when the Ravens targeted Jackson in the 2018 draft, they knew the Louisville dual-threat star and Heisman Trophy winner was a “very special player, kind of unorthodox, not your traditional quarterback.” Five years later, DeCosta is staying patient and prepared as the Ravens continue an unorthodox, nontraditional negotiation with their most important player.
“Really, what we see now is, it is very, very hard to win in the NFL without a blue-chip quarterback,” DeCosta said. “It just is. There are certainly going to be anomalies, but to think that we could win a Super Bowl like we did in 2000 with primarily a dominant defense, that’s very hard to do now. The game has changed, the rules have changed. The way that teams play have changed. …
“It’s definitely a quarterback league. It will continue to be a quarterback league, but you can’t just have a quarterback standing alone. You’ve got to have really good pieces behind him to be the best possible team.”
