Lamar Jackson might mentally be preparing himself to leave the Baltimore Ravens following the recent developments around his contract situation.
The Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson appear to be at something of an impasse at the moment when it comes to what will happen with his long-term future with the franchise. The Ravens, perhaps understandably given his injury history, aren’t going to give him anything long-term and fully guaranteed, whilst Jackson will feel that after all that he’s given to the team, he deserves a little bit more from them.
All that has been done at the moment though is that Jackson has been handed a non-exclusive franchise tag, which means that all other 31 teams can come in and offer him a deal, but the Ravens would have the chance to match it, leaving Jackson with the choice of who he wants to play for. Failing that he will be playing this season (assuming he decides he wants to play), on $32.4m or whatever deal the Ravens and he agree to before the start of the year.
And according to NFL reporter Mike Florio, it might well be that we’re about to come to an end to the whole situation, but it might not necessarily work out in the Ravens’ favour.
Lamar Jackson ready to up and leave?
Writing for ProFootballTalk, Florio revealed that not only is Jackson willing to renege on his demands of a fully guaranteed deal (which would probably benefit the Ravens), but that he is also considering the possibility of leaving the Ravens this offseason if things were to fall a certain way.
Per multiple sources, a representative for Jackson has contacted more than one team in an effort to spark negotiations aimed at a possible offer sheet. The representative is not certified by the NFL Players Association. As one source explained it, the person has said that Jackson does not want a fully-guaranteed contract. Some regard this as a possible exercise in semantics, with Jackson still wanting a very significant amount fully guaranteed — up to $200 million or more — with one more more non-guaranteed years on the back end.
Another source said that the representative is telling other teams that Lamar is ready to move on from the Ravens. Obviously, the Ravens would have the ability to match any offer sheet signed by Jackson.
Has Lamar Jackson washed his hands of the organisation?
The way this report reads makes it look as if Jackson is essentially throwing the Ravens one last chance to try and come to an agreement with him, otherwise he will sign whatever offer comes his way from another team. The only problem with that is that so far there haven’t been any offers from other teams around the league.
So whilst his head might be turning away right now, he might have to turn it back if he isn’t too careful, and it might become very awkward to go back to the Ravens after he’s supposedly started to think about going elsewhere.