Lamar Jackson might just have been handed a big incentive to stay with the Baltimore Ravens moving forward following the team’s latest move.

The next few weeks and months are set to be a repeat of this past offseason for both Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, as they are going to have to sit down and discuss the franchise quarterback’s contract after they couldn’t come to an agreement last summer.

The lack of an agreement meant that this season was something of a ‘prove it’ year for Jackson, and things started out incredibly well for him, as he and the Ravens put together an incredibly explosive offense that had some people putting him in the conversation to be the league’s MVP early in the year.

But for the second time in two seasons, he got injured down the stretch and ultimately the Ravens paid the price as they were bounced out in the first round of the playoffs in a game that they might have had a chance of winning had he been available.

Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens hoping to become a family

That means that this round of contract talks are likely going to be a little bit more tricky. Do the Ravens pay him for what he brings to the table, or will they be forced to offer something of a reduced amount as he is now a pretty big injury risk? Ravens head coach John Harbaugh seems pretty confident that they will be able to pull it off, but whether or not they end up doing so, we’ll have to wait and see.  

Reports suggest that he was offered $133m in guaranteed money last summer, but that figure will more than likely change based on what happened this past season, and the Ravens might have just made a move that might well impact how talks go moving forward.

Despite the season being over, teams are still adding and dropping players ahead of 2023, and the Ravens have brought in cornerback Trayvon Mullen from the Dallas Cowboys, but as ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques points out, there’s more to the move than first meets the eye:

Whether this was done purely out of need at the position, or if this was done as a sweetener to Jackson, only the Ravens know for sure, but it certainly is a bit of a coincidence that they make a move like this before contract talks are set to get underway again.