Since the moment Lamar Jackson took snaps as the Ravens’ unquestioned starter, it’s almost always been full steam ahead. When Jackson wants to take control of the game — or close it out — the Ravens don’t hesitate. They usually empower No. 8 in purple and ask, in essence, “Lamar, do you want to go for this?” Baltimore is built around and for Jackson. They would be nowhere without him.
Yet, for whatever reason, they don’t want to pay their franchise player, their purple talisman, what he’s worth. Come again?
The Ravens and Jackson have been locked in contract negotiations all summer long for the superstar’s next deal. Jackson is in the fifth and final year of his rookie contract as he seeks a payday in line with his fellow talented peers. Given recent developments, it’s starting to seem like those negotiations resemble more of a tug of war than anything cordial and pleasant.
In late August, FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer reported the Ravens had offered Jackson more money than Kyler Murray’s recent five-year, $230.5 million contract extension. That’s a lot of smackeroos! Signed, sealed, delivered, right? Wrong. There’s one problem: Jackson wants a fully-guaranteed contract. According to Over The Cap, such an agreement would give Jackson the most guaranteed money in NFL history, above a certain Cleveland player ($230 million), and way above Murray ($160 million) as well as four-time MVP in Aaron Rodgers ($150.6 million).
Aside from Jackson being more accomplished than everyone there sans Rodgers, the Ravens — rather curiously — don’t want to give Jackson that chest of cash. My question for them is: Why? What on earth could be holding them back from paying an arguable top-10 player, someone whom their entire current operation would fall apart without, what he wants?
Someone, please enlighten me.
Jackson keeps adding milestones to his resume, like becoming the fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 3,000 career rushing yards. He’s only 25 and has already accomplished so much with his entire playing career ahead of him.
Jackson has a robust career average of 7.5 yards per pass attempt to go with six yards per carry, and it’s scary! Imagine how defensive coordinators and poor linebackers who are assigned as quarterback spies feel.
Jackson frequently plays at an MVP level while lifting the Ravens mostly pedestrian complementary offensive pieces, year in and year out. He took the 2019 Ravens to a 14-2 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC — despite his best receiver being Marquise “Hollywood” Brown. Lest we forget, that year earned Jackson only the second unanimous MVP in league history, behind Tom Brady in 2010. Ho-hum.
Hollywood Brown gets wide open. Lamar Jackson gorgeous pass. Touchdown. pic.twitter.com/3WFiDMkqW5
— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) October 12, 2021
Jackson’s been one of the more efficient quarterbacks in the league since he became the starter in late 2018.
On an Expected Points Added (EPA) basis, — which measures how much a quarterback contributes points-wise on every play — Jackson is in the top 10 in the NFL over the last four years. Given the dearth of pass weapons around him, you could make the argument some of the guys ahead of Jackson in EPA — who have started roughly the same amount of time — such as Jimmy Garoppolo (sixth), Aaron Rodgers (third), Drew Brees (second) and Patrick Mahomes (first), are ahead of the Ravens’ QB more so because of superior support rather than them being better players.
Taking it a step further, since 2019, Jackson’s completion rate over expected (CPOE) — which measures how many plays a quarterback makes with their arm above expectations — is 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That is better than other notable names such as Tom Brady (2.8 percent), Josh Allen (2.5 percent), Patrick Mahomes (1.3 percent) and Russell Wilson (0.8 percent) in the same span. When the game’s on the line, Jackson’s better than four other superstars who are often perceived as “better” than him. (Note: That includes his “down” season last year.)
On an overall playmaking and clutch performance basis, there’s enough to say that Jackson very well might have accomplished the most with the least of any quarterback since 2018. And there’s enough to say that defenses have certainly not figured out the explosive, efficient playmaker as the next phase of his career begins.
NFL Films shot of @Lj_era8 electrifying touchdown run against the #Titans pic.twitter.com/XZkSXp1wK0
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 12, 2021
The only reservation I might understand from the Ravens’ perspective is that fully-guaranteed contracts, especially for quarterbacks, are still more or less unprecedented. Only two have ever been handed out — one to Kirk Cousins in 2018, who hasn’t made the most of the Vikings’ investment, and one recently to an alleged serial sexual harasser in Cleveland. But it’s not Jackson’s problem there’s a limited history behind his ask. He’s merely trying to make the most of his career as he becomes a vested veteran.
Even if giving Jackson a fully-guaranteed deal would essentially still be breaking new ground, he’s one of the few players worthy of such trust as a pioneer. Jackson, who is negotiating the deal himself without an agent, would be the poster boy for a shift in contract negotiations and salary work behind the scenes. The standard he’d establish on that deal might be the skeleton teams work with in the future around their respective superstar signal-callers.
The previous teams to hand out fully-guaranteed contracts to quarterbacks did so because they were desperate, not because they were worth the money. Their decisions weren’t rooted in clear-headed thinking or logic. And neither player had as much of a history of success — especially in big games — as Jackson does. Nor were they as embedded all around into their respective franchise and city as Jackson is with Baltimore and the Ravens.
Jackson is worth the money. The Ravens’ clear-headed, logical answer is to give him the contract he deserves. The only question they should be asking themselves for the foreseeable future is: “Lamar, do you want to go for this?”
