Ravens Indicating to Free Agents They're 'Not Committing' to Signing Lamar Jackson, Claims ESPN

ESPN issues a highly incendiary accusation: The Ravens are not committed to keeping Lamar Jackson and they are stupid enough to be telling NFL free agents that?

We're not sure the Baltimore Ravens are exactly "attacking'' the problem with quarterback Lamar Jackson and the potential roster answers in free agency.

But we are sure of this: ESPN is spending an awful lot of time "attacking'' the tossing of some wild concepts onto the landscape with some at-best wobbly evidence to support the wildness.

Three new examples from the last 24 hours?

*Dallas Cowboys ex Ezekiel Elliott has "narrowed his options'' down to the Eagles, Jets and Bengals, reported ESPN's Adam Schefter. (The story is so embarrassingly bogus that Zeke ought to demand an apology.)

*The Cardinals trade asking price for DeAndre Hopkins is somehow now being jacked up to "maybe even as high as like a Christian McCaffrey package,'' reported ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. "We're talking second-, third-, fourth-round picks.'' (This shortly after multiple outlets have suggested that they eventual price will go down, not up from the initial ask of just a single second-round pick.)

*And the Ravens? On SportsCenter, Fowler said (hat-tip Bleacher Report) that “Baltimore is at least giving some indications to some free agents they’ve been meeting with that they would like to keep Lamar. ... But they’re not committing one way or the other. So, still unclear to players like say, Nelson Agholor, who come in and sign with Baltimore as a wide receiver, they don’t quite know who their quarterback is going to be.”

Can this be true? That Ravens are foolish enough to be courting free agents while telling them they might be joining a Lamar-less roster? 

Can this be true? That in their hearts, minds, voices and interactions with prospective signees, Ravens officials like GM Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh are indicating a lack of "commitment'' to their best player?

The media is busy creating "good guys'' and "bad guys'' in the Ravens' stalemate with Jackson, and that's too bad. But this is a highly incendiary accusation: The Ravens are not committed to keeping Lamar Jackson and they are stupid enough to be telling NFL free agents that?

Either the Ravens shouldn't be this stupid ... Or ESPN shouldn't be this sloppy.

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