Lamar Jackson Has Total Leverage In Contract Talks With Ravens. Could An Agent Have Helped?

Whatever the Ravens believe two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson is worth, once they no longer have exclusive contractual rights to him, that number only goes up.

Barring a career-threatening injury, that is how things operate in professional sports and especially at the quarterback position and undoubtedly at the highest levels of the QB market. Where talents like Jackson reside. The Ravens have baffled both management and labor alike by getting into another contractual bind with Jackson, after it took years to finally secure him to his initial contract extension, and only cost themselves millions the last time around.

And now, with Jackson essentially “17 weeks from free agency,” on his current deal, as top NFL agent Mike McCartney explained it on “The Daily Flock” with me, the Ravens might not just cost themselves millions, they might lose the player entirely. While Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta has groused about the lack of an agent being involved in this process out load (and especially in private and to his cronies around the league) – Jackson represents himself – the bottom line is most of the league believes Jackson has been a master negotiator throughout two protracted impasses with this franchise and has the Ravens in the palm of his hand now.

Despite receiving no overtures from NFL owners while on a non-exclusive franchise tag (meaning he could meet with any team at any time), Jackson still secured a top-market deal financially and brokered an $85M cap hit that essentially made him a free agent in 2027 barring a new top-market extension before the start of the 2026 season. And he obtained a no-trade clause and a no-tag clause. He did this before they were as in vogue as they have become, and he has DeCosta scrambling again after the team failed to meet owner Steve Bisciotti’s stated deadline of getting a new deal done by March.

McCartney, who has been involved in all levels of deals and numerous QB negotiations (most notably getting massive deals for Kirk Cousins, including fully guaranteed pacts), believes Jackson should be commended for his negotiating prowess, (which seems pretty remarkable to me considering how highly numerous Ravens executives are paid to handle their side of the talks and this is their full-time job).

“I think they (Jackson and his mom) had to overcome some obstacles, and the end result is he ended up with a really good contract,” McCartney said. “But the best part of his contract is what you described (cap number, no tag, no trade). It's given him the leverage to really negotiate what he what he would like to be paid.

“And the reality is if the Ravens don't step up, then you know he's going to go to the marketplace and whatever the Ravens have offered him, it's going to be blown away by the marketplace.”

Surely the Ravens know this, yet they have fallen well behind the Chiefs and Bills and others securing their All Pro quarterback for years to come.

Where Could An Agent Have Helped?

One area where formal representation may have helped Jackson – and perhaps worked against Baltimore’s ability to keep him when he was on that non-exclusive tag – was in getting an audience with owners. Now, many in the NFLPA would posit that the owners decided to tamp down salaries and issue no more long-term fully guaranteed deals after the Browns silly pact with QB Deshaun Watson, and so even a most adroit agent would have been stonewalled in setting up meetings and negotiating sessions in this instance.

But there is some currency in those relationships, and this is a business of favors, and securing a lunch date for Jackson with a billionaire not names Steve Bisciotti may have swung more leverage to Jackson’s side. It’s also fair to wonder if Jackson simply wasn’t going to get an offer sheet then no matter what.

“The last thing I want to do is be critical of Lamar and how he's handled his career,” McCartney said. “You know, you get one career and players have a right to self-represent or have family help. Having said that, I do think that you know the right agent can have conversations behind the scenes and plant seeds and find out … why didn't a couple of those owners reach out?

“Why didn't they bring them in and at least have a conversation? I think that's where an agent worth his salt can really get behind the scenes of what's really happening. But beyond that, just prepare ahead of time. If you're going to get franchised, it just it doesn't happen March 15th. it starts in October, November. So those conversations, and asking the right questions.

“But the reality is this - What's absurd is Lamar Jackson was easily a what, top five, 10 quarterback if not better. And for him to not get a sniff, something's amiss, you know, and maybe having not having an agent is part of it. But it also feels like there's more to that story than maybe we'll ever know.”

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