What's Lamar Jackson's real contract deadline? | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC
we’re not over yet, but soon. So proud of your deadline probably be cut off after this week kickoff. I would not be talking about a contract, I’m thinking straight Jets round kick off time. As far as a deadline on your bananas week and as we Friday Friday, and it was a pretty big wrist last season the year before, you know, I wasn’t thinking about contract negotiations around that time, you know, this is gonna be the same. Same thing, but you know I’m just playing football, you know, anything can happen. But God forbid and the wrong
thing happened, you know, I’m keeping God first and just playing ball. Like, I’ve been doing, how much closer do you feel? Now, as opposed to when you started this process, may be the beginning of training camp for the last few weeks. How much closer do you feel? Now toward an a potential agreement? I have no clue. No, you have to ask the guy who I’m talking to talk to Jim about that. He’s referring to General Manager. Eric DeCosta of the Baltimore Ravens, who is negotiating directly with Lamar Jackson. Lamar has no agent and he said
a lot there. When he talked about a deadline initially, he used the word, probably twice, Friday is probably the deadline, that’s probably the cutoff when
like the one that the Broncos and Russell Wilson had not that long ago. They set a September 1 deadline and they got it done. They respected the artificial deadlines. If Lamar Jackson is going to say probably probably it’s not going to be. Respected, artificial deadlines. That becomes a real deadline because really somebody made this point to me, not that long ago if the deadline is week one. But next week the Ravens offering everything he wants. Is he going to say no, the deadline was last week, so no, it’s, it’s really not the deadline and that’s
the problem. It needs to be a real deadline. It needs to be. I refuse to talk after Friday. He needs to say it. He needs to mean it and the Ravens need to believe it for it to work. Work. Now I don’t know that it makes a difference in getting a deal done. I don’t think they’re getting a deal done either way, but I think Lamar Jackson would continue to negotiate and would continue to entertain offers after this week, despite what he said yesterday. Well, I mean, it’s got one of those things where it’s like,
if they come to him once a week on Friday, right after it, which, you know, teams are on the way they call it fast Friday because it’s when you get everything out of the way people either, are you? Getting on planes or they’re going home. That’s been time with their family for Friday afternoon and Friday night and say like every week Eric DeCosta before Lamar Jackson leaves the building has a Llamar. Why don’t you just come up to my office? Let’s spin five minutes. Right? How’s this? And he says, no. Okay. By like what is
that really? Is there some sort of prevention of you know, what is the negotiation there or whatever? I don’t know. I mean and that’s like really simplifying things down to you know where they are. Probably should not be but whenever you’re dealing with yourself as an agent, as opposed to somebody who handles this externally for you, like that’s the kind of thing where potentially you could be dealing with it, especially if you’re saying probably as opposed to. That is a real artificial Del I mean really the the real deadline for this is not until March
20 and 23, right? Where the Ravens have to decide either. We’re going to place the franchise tag on you. We’re going to let you hit. Agency or we are, you know, negotiating a new deal before you hit free agency like that. That’s where the real deadline for this is. But if your Lamar Jackson then yeah, I understand why you don’t want to be negotiating. A contract while you have to study to defeat whoever is your opponent that week like that, that’s too much. I think to put on a QB when you’re also your own agent
and I don’t know that that’s fair for him to want to do that to himself. If that makes Sense. Well, it makes a ton of sense look for Joe Flacco. 10 years ago, the deadline was after he turned down the best offer that the Ravens made in August consciously with the assistance of an agent said, no, thank you. I am going to deliberately and strategically bet on myself. They won the Super Bowl. He was a Super Bowl MVP. The deadline was the expiration of the period for applying the franchise tag and I remember vividly what
the Ravens were going through. Do we Apply the not exclusive tag. Do we apply the exclusive tag which prevents anyone from trying to sign him to an offer sheet and willing to give up two first round? Picks, where do we sign into a long-term deal? They went with the long-term deal. They didn’t do the non-exclusive tag. There were two teams, your Browns and the chiefs were the two teams that were thinking about signing him to an offer sheet that the Ravens couldn’t match, it would have been easy to come up with one because the Ravens
had real cap issues that year they had to construct a deal with Flacco that three years later. They had no choice but to redo it and make him the highest paid player in football again, as part of this renegotiation, even though he wasn’t playing at that level, because they were really over a barrel when it was time to do the first deal. So they were stuck. That was the deadline, the difference. That was a real deadline and he had an agent. And right, I’m I’m tiptoeing through a mine here. Minefield here because I know some
stuff I’m going to say tonight. But I want to save for tonight whoo-hoo, it’s nothing, it’s nothing earth-shattering, okay? But it’s still something that I don’t think I’ve said before here or written. So I’m choosing my words carefully but I keep coming back to this miles. Yeah. And I’ve said this time and again he needs an agent for two reasons. Reason one, you need the agent who can be the person who is talking to Eric DeCosta while you’re otherwise focused on football because right now you’re focused on football, you need that agent to get Best
offer on the table from the Ravens, like Joe, Flacco did 10 years ago when Joe Flacco pick door number one over door. Number two, he knew what was behind door number two. Before he went with door. Number one, I don’t know. That Jackson knows or will know what he’s passing on if he doesn’t have an agent to get the best offer on the table, that’s first problem. Second problem is once the best offer is on the table, that’s when the agent swings back around to the client and says client Here’s what they’re offering. Here’s what
you’re getting. If you don’t take it, here are the risks. If you don’t take it, if you bet on yourself, you know, we all like to root for a guy who bets on himself because it’s not our money if he loses but you can lose the BET and from our Jackson is one hell of a bet. And I noticed some of that coming through, this is my concern for the Ravens and for Lamar Jackson last year, he was oblivious to this, he wasn’t even talking. Going to the Ravens this year miles. He’s trying to get
the deal this year. He’s aware, you know, when you miss four games to end the season because you got hit low legally properly, out of the pocket low hit from the Browns, Miss for games, you realize I get injured, it could be worse than a sprained, ankle. It knocks me out for four weeks. It could keep me from ever getting the contract that I have earned. I may never get it. So you need That. And I’ve said it time and again you need that person who can get you the best offer and they give you
the best advice and what I’ve heard time. And again, you know it because agents are I can get more, I can get more, I can get more at some point. They say, in good conscience. I could not tell my son to say no to this. He doesn’t have that his mother’s involved, but his mother’s not an agent. His mother doesn’t have the experience his mother’s not in a position to understand. What the bird in the hand? Really is what it’s worth and what you’re risking by continuing to pursue the mythical. Two in the bush because
you’re putting up your future, earning that money, you’re walking away from it may be gone forever. If you don’t take it now and maybe it’ll work out but it’s a hell of a risk. And I think if he had an agent he’d already have a contract. Well, first of all II, you know, said, I think plenty of times on this show That it it kind of baffles me that this wasn’t done last year. Just given the fact that Josh Allen got a contract Omar Jackson as an MVP award Josh Alan doesn’t so like, to me,
it’s sort of and I kind of hesitate to use this word but I’ll use it. It’s kind of a failure that he is only making 23 million dollars this season after winning an MVP award last year and you see a quarterback who, again, Does not have an MVP award, get a nine-figure guarantee, you know, and one of my favorite sayings aside from will. Someone rid me of this meddlesome priest is sometimes things are outside the box because that is where they’re supposed to be. We’re not talking about, you know, some Fringe player here who may,
or may not really be that good and you know we don’t necessarily know what you like. This is a this is a franchise quarterback and in MVP. Award winner, right? So at this point, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that he should have already gotten a. Nine-figure guarantee to me that should happen last year, and again, it didn’t happen. Fine, he’s betting on himself. I respect that I do, but like you said, it’s a hell of a risk. It’s a hell of a Gamble and, you know, I can respect the approach for in some
ways. But that doesn’t mean I have to understand it and I really don’t understand it. I don’t, I don’t know that I ever will, but I hope. Hope that he gets the money he wants. And the money that he has earned by being one of the elite players in this game, but like you said, he’s taking a hell of a risk right now, man. He really is. Yeah. And I just I hope that when it’s time to play, he’s not Jadeveon Clowney third year at South Carolina because I remember arguing, then after it was clear
that Clowney was going to be the first overall pick in the draft, but he can’t come to the NFL because of the stupid rule. That is frankly, complicit with the corruption, that is college football. I know we’re supposed to be celebrating college football now because they’re going to give us more playoff games. Well, the tell you start giving the players. As some money, some of the money that you’re going to generate the billions, it’s going to come from this, I still am going to continue to say this. It is corrupt system that exploits the players
under the guise of giving them an education, the rule that prevents a guy from going to the draft until he’s three years. Removed from high school is the NFL and the NFL players associations complicity. In the corruption that’s when Jadeveon Clowney should have said. I’m not playing. I’m sitting out the year but he played and Miles. He played With consciousness of what it could do to his draft stock and it doesn’t take much, you can see it, you can sense it. When a guy isn’t going all out and he shouldn’t have been going all out.
He should have been going any out. He shouldn’t have been on the field and I wonder if Lamar Jackson is going to be aware of, it is going to be able to shut that part of his brain off. It’s a hell of a test. It’s a hell of a challenge. I wouldn’t want to have to do I remember and Chris Simms is mentioned this, several times when he was playing for the Broncos, Brandon Marshall was closing in on the end of his rookie contract. He had done everything in his power to earn a major second
deal. He hadn’t gotten it yet, and he said to Chris in the locker room and I’m paraphrasing. I can’t do this. I can’t go out there and play. How am I supposed to play the way that I’m used to playing knowing that I am putting my family’s future at risk because I don’t have my contract, yet it’s a real concern. And last year, He wasn’t even talking. He wasn’t trying, it wasn’t, it wasn’t a priority this year, it is, but without an agent miles, he’s not able to get through the maze from wanting a contract
to getting a contract. All right. And that’s why I’m saying, you know, like this this unconventional thing and it’s kind of unprecedented. Like, that’s why I don’t love it because there’s a reason why quarterbacks have agents. There’s reason why when guys Get asked about, you know, their contracts and stuff. They say, you know, I let my agent handle that and when he needs me he lets me know. And then he lets me know exactly what I need to know to make an informed decision like that. That’s what the agent does and I think especially when
you’re talking about nine-figure guarantees with franchise quarterbacks, that’s one of those things that’s worth it. And look, we’ll continue to follow this. Like I said, I’ll have something to say about it tonight on the pregame show. It’s a big story. He’s a baby teeth at that hovers over the NFL season. Think about how unprecedented this is at the risk of saying too much. Just think of how unprecedented this is to have a franchise quarterback, an MVP winner who wants a contract and a team wants to give him a contract. And it’s the boys and girls
on each side of the room at the middle school dance. And it’s still. There, there’s still staring at each other and they have no idea how to get to the middle of the room and start dancing. That’s where we’ve been. And that’s where we are. And I think that’s where we’ll continue to be. So end result, is it either blows up on him and he never gets the contract or we get to real deadlines next year, miles? And who knows what happens? There’s a way The Dominoes fall it is. Play for the Ravens next year,
I’ve said that before whether it’s the Dolphins post to a sorry to a non, you should be happy to a non. I’ve Lamar Jackson a little bit, a little bit of an upgrade, little bit of an upgrade over to it or someone else. And that’s the other side of it to, before we move on, I was talking to somebody about this yesterday. If Lamar Jackson was an unrestricted, free agent right now. Well, I mean, it’s kind of unrealistic but let’s, let’s say that he was going into next year. Let’s say next. The Ravens announced and
they’re not going to. Let us say the Ravens announced. We’ve done everything. We can we have banged our head into the wall for months. We can’t get a deal with this guy, so when the season ends, we’re not going to franchise tag him. We’re not going to trade him, we’re not going to do anything. We’re going to stand out of his way and let him become a free agent. He can go wherever he wants again, they’re not going to do that, but if he was on the list of free agents of March of next year,
who are the teams? That would go after him. Are there teams? That would completely change their offense, would they be able to completely change their offense to run the Lamar Jackson system that the Ravens have been carefully cultivating since 2018? Maybe the Panthers just because they’re desperate for a franchise quarterback, and of course, that depends on what Baker Mayfield does this year. But, but who would it be Panthers and dolphins? I mean, there are teams out there that would not say and I’m a firm believer. You make your system fitted. Eight player. But if you’ve
already got the pieces in place, with the guys, you have to run the system, you’d like to run and it’s working fairly. Well, that’s a big ask to Pivot toward a guy that would cause you to run a different offense. So it’s not like, Peyton Manning. Here’s Peyton Manning and they lined up out the door. Right? Here’s Tom. Brady, and they tampered lined up out the door. I mean, it’s I I just I think I think that it will be would be a Or restricted Group, which is part of what he has to factor in.
When you consider what the Ravens very well might be willing to do right now if you say no thanks to it. Maybe, I mean, you know, I know there are other teams that come to the top of the mine. See what takes all it. Takes is two teams. Yeah. Wow out, but but Tampa Bay to have to completely. Maybe they would maybe they would. You got all that money tied up in my cabins and Chris Godwin, right? If you don’t right, right. But you’re gonna have to, you’re going to have to alter your offense, unless
it really is. A Greg Roman issue. Maybe it really is a Greg, Roman issue. The Falcons would be a team that would be on the list. So not but my point is, my point is Is there going to be a team out there? Because I think he wants to duplicate the DeShaun Watson outcome with a fully guaranteed deal. And for Deshaun Watson. It was a very rare set of circumstances. It was a lining up of the planets. It is not going to necessarily happen again. I think, even if he was a free agent next year,
there’s no guarantee that someone like the Browns is going to act that same way in the desperation to get Lamar Jackson, they’re getting a five-year 230 million or more fully guaranteed contract. I guess that’s my point. Yeah, for what he It’s what he wants. He’s not getting it from the Ravens. If he truly wants a fully guaranteed contract and based on some of his social media suggestions, I’m pretty sure he does. He’s not getting from the Ravens. Is he going to get it on the open market? Would there be enough of a land rush for
Lamar Jackson that wide all it takes is one stupid team to do it. Unfortunately, for him, the Browns are already spoken for but all it takes is one team to say they’ll do it. I just wonder whether anyone would do it. That’s, that’s my point. I’m glad we’ve I talked it through because that’s really the point I’m making. Could he simulate the DeShaun, Watson outcome? If he would get to the open market? And I’m not sure there’s enough teams that would be coming after him. And there wouldn’t be a Browns team in there that would
do what they did with DeShaun Watson. I’ve, I think if you can get Lamar Jackson and partially the excitement that it would bring and, you know, that you don’t have the same concerns about Lamar Jackson that you do with, you know, DeShawn Watson, I add I think that there would be a team out there that would, that would really want him. I maybe they give him a, I don’t know if they would give him a fully guaranteed deal, but there be a team that will really really want. I am in that would but what else
do the Jimmy Haslem special with Lamar Jackson because that’s what he wants. Presumably that but this is what an agent would explain to him. Yes, you’re not going to know hey Lamar you’re not going to get the DeShaun Watson deal, you’re not. Getting it, your and and by the time he would get to the open market, his only path to the open market is to play for two more years. For the Baltimore Ravens Beyond this year, three seasons total, where you going to be physically in three years. Lamar. Look at. Look at cabinet. Look at
what that playing style did to Cam Newton. He’s in his early thirties and you can’t get a job because he’s not the guy. He used to be because even though he was this carved out of granite Adonis, who Who took all the abuse that came his way? It’s the same Flesh Blood and Bone as the rest of us and you get to a point where I just can’t do it anymore. So he’s not getting the open market for three years and by the time he gets the open market, he’s just there isn’t going to be
a team by then that would do. What Jimmy has them did. So that’s the point where and he needs an agent to explain it to him, you’re not getting the DeShaun Watson contract now or ever, maybe you should take the best offer the Ravens have on the table. Well, right? Because color Marie didn’t get it and Russell Wilson didn’t get it and those are the two contracts that have happened. You know, since July with quarterbacks that have been huge, huge money. So if those two guys didn’t get it from their organizations, it’s kind of like
what? Why would you and you don’t see. And we need to see the DeShaun Watson contract, for probably what it is, which is an outlier, right? So yeah, I think that that’s kind of where things may be, you know, need to be explained I guess in some way. Exactly. And and there’s that that broader push and pull that collusion that happens in the NFL and collusion happens and the owners don’t want this to become the norm where the contracts are fully guaranteed and they have to, they have to put tens of millions of dollars into
escrow. Some of them just don’t have the cash flow to do it and the ones who do don’t want to do it, it’s become a thing. We owners spoke out against what Jimmy has them did. To basically acknowledged that there’s collusion. So again, that’s when an agent can explain to Lamar, hey, Lamar, it doesn’t seem fair. I know and it doesn’t seem fair. How does the guy that’s got 24 lawsuits, alleging sexual misconduct, during massage therapy sessions, who wasn’t an MVP, get 230 million fully guaranteed. How does that happen in? I don’t explain it to
me. He needs someone who can because there is an explanation as unfair as it seems. There is an explanation.
