One of the NFL’s longest extension journeys ended earlier Thursday, with Lamar Jackson signing his five-year Ravens contract. Jackson agreed to a $52MM-per-year accord, making him — in terms of average salary — the NFL’s highest-paid player.
This concluded a strange process, one that featured the quarterback operating without an agent. Jackson requested a trade and announced this publicly, indicating he informed the Ravens he wanted out in early March. No team is believed to have expressed serious interest, though Jackson said (via ESPN’s Jamison Hensley) he did hear from clubs during his period on the franchise tag. After it became clear Jackson’s hope of a Deshaun Watson-level guarantee at signing would not come to pass, he inked the five-year, $260MM Ravens deal.
Although Jackson requested a trade, he declined to say what changed between then and his signing. While the Jalen Hurts $51MM-AAV contract would be the most obvious development between those two points, Jackson said the Eagles quarterback’s extension did not affect his. Jackson also curiously said (via NFL.com’s Sherree Burress) he was not interested in other teams’ overtures, pointing out — trade request notwithstanding — he always wanted to be a Raven.
Jackson was connected to nearly half the league this offseason, but an unexpected number of teams made it clear they were not pursuing the former MVP. The lack of genuine interest — at least, at Jackson’s long-reported price point — did surprise Ravens GM Eric DeCosta, who placed the nonexclusive franchise tag ($32.4MM) on the sixth-year quarterback in March.
“Was I surprised? Probably a little bit, but in the end, every team has to look at who they are, how they’re built, what’s important to them,” DeCosta said, via Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. “I always feel like one of the advantages to free agency is when you have a guy on your team, you know exactly who he is, you know how he’s wired, you know what’s important to him. Other teams don’t know that, you know?”
Through either early reports or direct denials of a pursuit, the Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Colts, Texans, Titans, Commanders, Lions, Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Seahawks were linked to being against going after Jackson. The Raiders instead signed Jimmy Garoppolo to replace Derek Carr, who signed with the Saints ahead of unrestricted free agency. Jackson said Thursday he will continue to represent himself, though he noted (via The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec) agents did court him this offseason.
A player of Jackson’s abilities being available at 26 would seemingly have enticed QB-needy teams, but a few spoke out against the lofty guarantee Jackson was reported to be seeking. After Hurts’ deal followed other post-Watson QB accords in being far from fully guaranteed, the Ravens finalized their Jackson re-up. Still, the AFC North team was prepared to match almost any offer that emerged.
“We respected his position and his feelings, but we were still having a tougher time,” DeCosta said, via Florio, of the Jackson talks. “But in the end, we felt like our deal, that the deals that we had made, we felt they were credible deals, we felt they were strong deals, and we felt like we were in a position to, not that we could match every single deal, but we felt like we would be able to match most deals and that if a team were willing to do a deal that we couldn’t match would be very hard for that team to do that type of deal. Not impossible, but very difficult.”
Jackson’s full contract numbers have not surfaced, but CBS Sports’ Joel Corry reports the extension comes with a record-setting $72.5MM signing bonus, which breaks Dak Prescott‘s previous standard. The contract comes with $80MM in 2023, Florio tweets, adding the first three years are guaranteed. This deal also includes a no-trade clause and a clause that prevents a 2028 franchise tag, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones adds.
Russell Wilson‘s $124MM still represents the NFL’s second-highest full guarantee, with teams successfully managing to make Watson’s Browns pact a leverage-based outlier. Considering how much full guarantees came up during the Jackson negotiations, it will be interesting to see how close to Watson the three-time Pro Bowler landed here.
The Ravens have added Odell Beckham Jr. and first-rounder Zay Flowers to their receiving corps. While DeCosta also said (via Florio) he had probably done a poor job of assembling a quality receiving corps around his run-oriented QB, Jackson said he did not mandate the team sign OBJ and trade for DeAndre Hopkins. Linked to making such a request, Jackson confirmed (via Zrebiec) he asked DeCosta if the team had room for the wideouts. Even as his trade request still stood, Jackson helped recruit Beckham to Baltimore.
Jackson plans to report to Ravens OTAs at some point and said (via CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson) he began to feel all the way back from his PCL injury in April. After reports indicated Jackson would be back well before season’s end, the Ravens kept ruling out their QB — to the point it became a controversial topic. Jackson has failed to complete each of the past two seasons, inviting questions about his durability and how his play style would hold up in the long run. Some connected the longer-than-expected absence to Jackson’s contract uncertainty. With this in the past, via Jackson receiving full clearance to return, the 2018 first-rounder has spoken with new Baltimore OC Todd Monken.
With this rather eventful piece of business behind them, the Ravens will try and build a playoff team in a conference that has gained strength this offseason. Jackson will obviously be the top determinant in Baltimore being able to qualify for a fifth postseason bracket in six years.
Don’t we already know the FULLY guaranteed dollar number? Didn’t he surpass Wilson with $133M fully guaranteed?
Show Me the Money !!! Got no more excuses, he’s healthy, he’s got real WR talent, a great hands TE, a nice running gm, a solid D, now he needs to produce deep playoff runs n be smarter when he does jet n stop taking big hits
Won’t happen.
OBJ is nothing but a name now. His legs are shot. From everything I read, the only 1st round talented WR was the guy that went to Seattle & their former 1st rounder is always hurt. That’s their passing game in my opinion.
Jackson wasn’t worth 52 million over 5 years much less what he signed for. At least it’s only 5 years since they’ll regret giving him that contract. He’s an extremely overrated QB.
It’s okay Phyllis. You’ll realize eventually that no player is worth what they are paid.
No GM was interested in pursuing Jackson but I’m betting in 10 years they’ll all be saying “Remember the good old days when you could get a starting QB for a paltry $52MM”.
1993-2000. Troy Aikman signed a 6 year, $11,037,000 contract with the Dallas Cowboys, including a $2,750,000 signing bonus, $5,787,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $1,839,500.
Troy is about my age, 50ish. That was top QB money 30 years ago. You’re right with your comment.
Given how QB salaries are taking more and more or a team’s salary cap I wonder when all the other players on the team are going to start getting dissatisfied with a union that doesn’t protect them from having to take cuts and otherwise be satisfied with 1/50th of the QB’s salary?
I think we are already seeing the dissatisfaction to some degree as WRs were the first position to want to join the gravy train that QBs are riding. I cant see a continuation of the current cap model being sustainable. Perhaps it will be modified with some form of exemption for the QB position.
It will be interesting to see if this issue solves itself over time (team’s finding they can’t compete with > X% cap tied up to QB) or if it just progressively gets worse and the union has to step in to try to cap QB contracts.