The Baltimore Ravens used the non-exclusive franchise tag on QB Lamar Jackson on Tuesday. Jackson will be paid over $32 million next season as a result, however, he can also agree to a deal with a new team. But he's surprisingly failed to garner much interest, and ESPN's Adam Schefter revealed the underlying reason behind the contract hesitancy from teams, per Schefter on Twitter.
“I think part of it is the fact that teams know that, they feel like they would just be drawing the offer sheet for the Baltimore Ravens,” Schefter said.
The Ravens will be able to match any contract offer Lamar Jackson receives. Baltimore would prefer to sign him to a long-term extension, so other teams don't want to do the work for Baltimore by providing the financial figure.
Collusion has been mentioned as a possibility by people around the NFL world. Schefter addressed that narrative as well.
“There have been free agents that other teams have shied away from because they had to sign them to an offer sheet,” Schefter said. “That's a part of this too. So we can come up with collusion, we can come up with quarterbacks, Basically the Ravens said ‘let the market show what you're worth. You say you're worth all this money, fully-guaranteed, if someone is willing to pay you then you will have that and we will have the chance to match it. And if we don't want to match it, we can take two first-round draft picks.'”
Lamar Jackson's value
Lamar Jackson features game-changing ability, but has struggled with injury concerns over the past few seasons. Those injury concerns are a big reason why Baltimore may be hesitant to offer a fully-guaranteed contract. If a team decides to make an offer to Jackson, that would provide the Ravens with a financial starting point.
Jackson deserves a lucrative contract, but it remains to be seen which team will offer it to him.
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