On the eve of the 2022 NFL season, Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta put out a statement announcing that long-term Lamar Jackson contract talks between the quarterback and the organization are over until after the season. Without a Lamar Jackson extension on the books, the QB will make $23 million in the final year of his rookie deal in 2022.
The Lamar Jackson contract impasse doesn’t mean his time is over with the Ravens. The team can still use the franchise tag on him for the next several seasons while the parties pursue an extension.
More than anything, not working out a deal is a signal that Jackson is betting on himself. He wants to be among the highest or even the highest-paid QB in the league, and the 2022 season gives him a chance to prove he derives that. Here are three reasons why Jackson’s bet on himself will ultimately pay off for the superstar signal-caller.
3. Last year was a wash for Lamar Jackson and the Ravens
It’s always better to negotiate from a position of strength. If Lamar Jackson's extension talks happened after his MVP season in 2019, the QB would have been in a great position. As the calendar (and the contract) would have it, though, he’s negotiating after the 2021 season instead.
The 2021 NFL season wasn’t great for Lamar Jackson or the Baltimore Ravens.
Jackson started just 12 games in 2021 due to injury and illness and still threw a career-high 13 interceptions. He also had his lowest touchdown total (16) since his rookie season when he started just seven games.
The Ravens as a whole were a mess last season as well. The franchise lost three running backs to injuries before Week 1 even kicked off and dealt with a continued barrage of injuries as the season progressed.
The end result was an 8-9 record. This led to Jackson missing the playoffs for the first time in his career and was the franchise’s worth mark since 2015.
Lamar Jackson is now betting that he — and the team around him — will have a better, healthier year in 2022 which will improve his negotiating position. After last season’s debacle, chances are this season will be better than the last.
2. The offense is set up better this season
Since Lamar Jackson debuted for the Ravens in 2019, the team has ranked second, first, first, and third in rushing yards these last four seasons.
Those are great stats, but everyone knows that to win the big game (and get the big money) the Ravens have to become a better passing team. In those same four seasons, Baltimore has ranked 22nd, 27th, 32nd, and 13th in passing yards.
In order for the team to feel comfortable (from both an injury and skillset perspective) giving out a huge Lamar Jackson extension, the QB will have to prove he can develop into a reliable pocket passer.
This season, the team is better set up to help Jackson achieve this than ever. Gone is the explosive but unreliable Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, replaced by the solid (if unspectacular) Rashod Bateman, James Proche II, and Devin Duvernay.
Also, Jackson still has his favorite target, tight end Mark Andrews, and Eric DeCosta added more tight ends in the draft. Coastal Carolina’s Isaiah Likely already looks like a potential star at the position, and Iowa State TE Charlie Kolar — a player whose “upside is really big,” according to Andrews (h/t BaltimoreRavens.com) — should be back from a sports hernia surgery after a month or so.
Lamar Jackson now has more weapons — and the right kind of weapons — to help him flourish this season and get a massive deal next offseason.
1. Quarterback salaries just keep going up
The Lamar Jackson contract situation right now is also a smart bet by the QB because the money for star signal-callers in the NFL is just going to keep going up and up.
As the new media rights deal kicks in next year, the salary cap will rise, and giving a QB $230 million fully guaranteed (like the Cleveland Browns did with Deshaun Watson) might actually seem like a bargain soon.
Eric DeCosta and the Ravens should have learned a lesson from Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys back in 2020. That’s when Prescott was up for a new deal. Instead of giving him a long-term extension at a price point that seemed too big at the time, the Cowboys franchised him and then ended up signing the QB to a four-year, $160 million deal in 2021.
If they signed him to a long-term deal the year before, the team would have saved significant money.
The Ravens will learn the same lesson. Lamar Jackson will bet on himself this season, have a better year than last due to better injury luck and a better-composed offense, and cash in huge in either 2022 or 2023 after a franchise tag season.
Either way, if DeCosta and owner Steve Bisciotti just bit the bullet and paid the Lamar Jackson extension now, they could have saved some money down the road.
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