Lamar Jackson represents himself in his contract negotiations, and he’s now talking for himself whereas the insiders launch no matter morsels of knowledge they’ve in regards to the marathon discussions between him and the Baltimore Ravens about an extension. Some new data has come from Adam Schefter, and Lamar Jackson threw a metaphorical problem flag at it on Twitter.
Near the tip of Monday’s episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast, Schefter mentioned the piece that he and Chris Mortensen put collectively in September about Jackson turning down a 5-year, $250 million contract provide from the Ravens.
They reported that $133 million of it was assured. That is a smaller assure than what Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson acquired. And, lest we neglect, Deshaun Watson acquired a totally assured deal. Schefter claimed on his podcast that the overall ensures within the provide that Jackson turned down added as much as $200 million.
Jackson noticed the SB Nation weblog Baltimore Beatdown tweet out a narrative they revealed in regards to the episode and he enthusiastically referred to as cap on Schefter’s statements.
How Schefter stated the ensures within the contract would have labored is that Jackson would have been due $133 million at signing. The different $77 million would have come by way of an “injury” assure for $42 million, and the remainder from a “springing” assure.
A couple of minutes later Schefter needed to name cap on himself about that “springing” assure. After explaining what that truly meant he stated, “so maybe it’s not a guarantee.” Jackson would have acquired a $25 million sum provided that he was on Ravens’ roster on the fifth day of the league 12 months in 2026. That sounds extra like an enormous ole roster bonus to me, however perhaps my understanding of the definition of the phrase assured is off.
Not solely did Jackson ship the cap gif, but in addition claimed that what he was provided from the Ravens was a three-year totally assured $133 million. A quantity that ought to be thought-about objectively low for a participant who gained an MVP on his rookie contract.
After NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport despatched out a barely messy quote tweet, about Jackson’s response to Schefter’s data, he did a tv hit. His data just about corroborated what Jackson tweeted. The Ravens thought {that a} shorter cope with a decrease annual payout, however totally assured, was compromise. Three years and price simply over $44 million per 12 months whereas Watson will get 5 totally assured and is making $46 million per 12 months. Jackson in all probability doesn’t want an agent to see that the mathematics isn’t mathing.
What is each most attention-grabbing and disturbing about this negotiation course of between the Ravens and Jackson is how shortly individuals with no vested curiosity within the consequence are leaping to the franchise’s protection. Schefter spent almost seven minutes of a 36-minute podcast — 20 of which was spent interviewing Patrick Peterson — saying that the Ravens really made a greater provide than what he reported within the fall.
Rapoport sees Jackson’s response after which does a success on NFL Network to clarify to the viewers what three-year provide Jackson was referring to, however on the finish, he too delivers a pro-Ravens message.
“It [has] been pretty obvious that the Ravens have tried every different way to try to get this contract done,” Rapoport stated on NFL Network. “Long, short, a lot of guarantees, not as much guarantees but high APY, it simply has not happened.”
There is one approach to get this contract finished that Ravens clearly haven’t tried, and that’s giving Jackson what he desires. It seems that they’re intent on not giving him a five-year contract with a assured greenback quantity he sees as respectable.
It is odd that the Ravens are enjoying such hardball with top-of-the-line gamers within the NFL, however that’s their selection. What the NFL’s high data brokers shouldn’t be selecting to do although, is ship a message that paints the group as innocent.