The Baltimore Ravens are gearing up for a season with incredibly high expectations. Baltimore earned the first seed in the playoffs last year but could not overcome a powerful Chiefs squad in the AFC Championship Game. The game featured a strong defensive performance where neither Patrick Mahomes nor Lamar Jackson truly shined. Fans are excited to see what Jackson and Baltimore can do on a revenge tour, but they will have to wait until later in the offseason to see their franchise QB at work.
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has not been present at most of the team's OTAs this offseason. In fact, he has missed four out of five OTA days thus far. Jackson is the only offensive starter in Baltimore who isn't fully attending voluntary workouts.
Jackson's contract includes a $750,000 offseason workout bonus in each year of the deal. By choosing to sit out OTAs, Jackson is leaving that money on the table.
Some has suggested that the franchise QB should be present at OTAs because he is the leader of the team. Jackson also is locked up on a long-term contract, so he doesn't have a monetary reason to hold out at this point of the offseason.
That being said, these are voluntary workouts. Jackson has every right to choose not to attend. He earns $52 million a season, so missing out on $750,000 isn't the biggest deal in the world for him.
As long as the Ravens continue to play well, Jackson will continue to have the latitude to make these decisions with no repercussions.
The Ravens aren't scared to open the season against the Kansas City Chiefs
The Baltimore Ravens will kick off the 2024 NFL season with a trip to Arrowhead to face the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City is trying to win three Super Bowls in a row, a feat never accomplished before in the NFL. The Chiefs have bullied the Ravens in the postseason in recently history, so it makes the Week 1 matchup extra juicy for its playoff seeding implications.
But the Ravens aren't worried about a regular season game against the Chiefs. They only care about winning the Super Bowl themselves.
“I really don’t care who we play; it really didn’t matter,” Jackson said, via a transcript from the team (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). “At the end of the day, our goal is to make it to the Super Bowl.”
Jackson wisely points out that, beyond possible playoff tiebreakers, beating the Chiefs in the regular season doesn't mean anything. Beating them in they playoffs is what matters.
“We lost to them in the playoffs. Just us beating them in the regular season doesn’t really do anything,” Jackson said. “It just helps us keep stacking up wins to hopefully make it to the playoffs if anything to try to get in that same position again and hopefully be successful. It really doesn’t matter who we play [in the] first game; obviously it’s the Chiefs, but I really didn’t care.”
The Chiefs have had Jackson's number in the postseason thus far through his NFL career. In the Ravens' most recent AFC Championship Game defeat, Jackson went 20-for-37 with 272 yards, a touchdown and an interception while carrying the ball eight times for 54 yards.
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