Report: Lamar Jackson & Baltimore Ravens Unable To Reach Agreement On Long-Term Contract
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Quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens were reportedly unable to come to an agreement on a long-term contract extension. Jackson will bet on himself this season, and play out his fifth-year option which will earn him $23.016 million. Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta issued a statement on Friday, stating how appreciative he is that Jackson handled the process honorably.
Jackson is reportedly not being represented by an agent, and has been vocal about his contract situation with the Ravens. On August 29th, Jackson responded to a fan on Twitter, after the fan claimed that the football club offered the quarterback $250 million fully guaranteed. His initial response to the tweet was simply denying the claim, stating “No they didn’t.”
The thread continued on with a tweet from another Ravens fan who goes by the handle “BumpersElite.” Elite’s tweet states that a fully guaranteed contract is bad business, and that Watson’s fully guaranteed contract given by the Cleveland Browns is not a model other teams should follow.
“As much as I love Lamar, a fully guaranteed deal is just bad business. Just because a horrible franchise The Cleveland Browns did horrible business giving Watson that contract doesn’t mean other teams should follow. Honestly, I’m hoping @Lj_era8 gets a 10 year half a billion deal”
Jackson responded by saying “You don’t love Lamar”.
Watson’s fully guaranteed $230 million contract reportedly makes future negotiations with quarterbacks complicated, according to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, when asked about it back in March. The gap in terms of guaranteed money between Watson’s deal and the next highest-paid quarterback (Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray) is as much as $40.5 million. Head Coach John Harbaugh believes that Jackson will be around the Ravens organization for a long time and that the deal will happen “when it’s time”.
“I’m confident that’ll happen when it’s time. Lamar is going to be playing quarterback here for a long time. He and I talked about it yesterday like, ‘Hey man, let’s go be our best and go focus on football.’ And that’s what he’s been doing all along. So I know nothing will change with that and we’re just focused on Sunday.”
Jackson has been instrumental in the Ravens’ success ever since taking over the starting quarterback position from Joe Flacco, who is now with the New York Jets and is set to start Week 1 with Zach Wilson ruled out. Since midway through 2018, the ravens have a win-loss record of 37-12 (.755) with him and 2-5 without him. Jackson led the league in touchdown passes in 2019, the year he became the unanimous regular-season NFL MVP.
ESPN has more HERE.
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