It took about a year of angst, frustration, and passive-aggressive barbs through the media, but Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens have finally bridged the gap.
On Thursday, after months of trying to play hardball with the best quarterback in franchise history, with one of the biggest names in football, Baltimore relented and gave Jackson what he wanted: a five-year, $260 million deal, with $185 million guaranteed.
Officially, per Over The Cap, Jackson is the second-highest-paid football player in NFL history, with an average annual value (AAV) of $52 million. His guaranteed money is the second-most ever, behind the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson and his past more than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct and what the NFL would later deem “predatory behavior.”
And likely none of this ever happens between Jackson and the Ravens, on the day of the 2023 NFL Draft no less, if the Philadelphia Eagles hadn’t recently given Jalen Hurts a Brinks Truck of cash.
Precedent matters. Go figure.
Up until now, whenever the Ravens declined to give in to Jackson’s demands, they could point to Watson — who and say, “That guy probably didn’t deserve it.” Watson’s Browns contract after being traded was so unprecedented for quarterbacks on a guaranteed money basis that the Ravens could cry poor, check their pockets, and pretend they only found lint.
Regardless of its justifiability, you wouldn’t get anyone to budge for a player with the misconduct history and lesser profile of someone like Watson. The Ravens knew it. Anyone prospectively looking into a pursuit of Jackson knew it.
Jackson himself knew it.
But then came Hurts.
After an MVP-caliber season where he took the Eagles to Super Bowl 57, Philadelphia had little choice but to reward one of the sport’s premier young players. A player with a rocket arm and exemplary mobility who presented the same skill set as someone like Jackson. A player who liquidated the Ravens’ excuses for holding out on the 26-year-old signal caller, keeping them afloat almost by himself.
It’s funny how all of the NFL’s best players essentially help themselves through their own negotiations. It’s like a financial tag-team.
With Hurts paid and that kind of profile, no longer could the Ravens say they were scared of Jackson’s long-term viability paid. With Hurts paid, one of the best leaders in football, let alone quarterbacks, no longer could the Ravens point to Watson and say, “Well, if he’s the example you’re following, you’re S.O.L.”
If Hurts was awarded $179.3 million guaranteed, it was time for the Ravens to break out the piggy bank they were hiding under their bed and give Jackson even more. Sorry, folks: Hamm’s going to a better place on a farm upstate.
Baltimore has given Jackson what he wants, but there’s still work to do. In the years since his 2019 MVP campaign, the Ravens never evolved their offensive scheme, and the supporting cast around Jackson deteriorated. It was one of the main reasons these negotiations started to appear so hostile lately. With this kind of commitment to one of the faces of the game, they can no longer afford to leave Jackson hanging out to dry.
He needs to be buoyed like the legitimate game-changer he is.
But that’s a bridge to cross for another day, problems to address over the draft weekend and in the summer.
For now, the Ravens finally locked up a superstar and gave him the compensation he deserves. Relationships with these kinds of schisms tend to be sanded over once there’s a resolution. And it probably never happens if his green-and-black friend in Philadelphia doesn’t get the contract he earned.
Go figure.
