Lamar Jackson's Absence From Start Of Ravens OTAs Speaks Volumes

If Lamar Jackson had decided that showing up for the start of OTAs was worth his time, and the organization had displayed sufficient good faith in their latest epic contract negotiations to warrant his appearance there, the Ravens would have plastered his arrival everywhere.

There would have been shots of him getting out of his car, walking into the building. Social media posts and website stories of him taking snaps for the first time, even in glorified walk-throughs, as rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle installs his first NFL offense would have dominated the week.

You would not have been able to avoid it, on Monday, before the media was allowed to watch, and again on Tueday. Instead, we got rookie head coach Jesse Minter speaking for his absent quarterback, as the organization pretends another bizarre negotiation with him is business as usual. They'd also have you believe that trade demand a few years ago never happened, either.

Nothing To See Here, Certainly No QB

Instead the Ravens in-house folks provided “reports” about how good a journeyman wanna-be center looked for a makeshift offensive line and some details about rookies and not a word said or written about anything related to the quarterback position. Because Jackson, despite recently being seen around town for horse races and other events recently, was not in Owings Mills for the start of voluntary work.

Not by happenstance. By design. He's nobody's fool. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's got all the leverage, and he's already displayed in the past that he'll squeeze when he has to.

Minter didn’t go too deep on the matter when finally asked about it, saying he’ll leave the bulk of his conversations “between me and Lamar.” Don't get it twisted - this franchise, trying to prop up an offense under scrutiny and a surprising hire at coordinator, desperately wanted Jackson to be there, no matter what other conflicts may exist. The absence, for a quarterback in a situation like this, is jarring.

Its more a shot across the bow than a scheduling glitch. Remember Doyle, before he'd built a relationship or called a play, saying he "expected" players at OTAs, desptie them being voluntary? Jackson surely does. Consider it the coordinator's first rookie mistake.

“Lamar’s been one of our leaders of the offseason program,” Minter said. “Couple of things going on yesterday and today … Do expect him to be back soon.”

There are only three weeks of these practices. One is essentially down. They could scheduled these when they want, how they want, around the quarterbacks schedule. This is damage control.

When Jackson showed up to lift some weights a few weeks ago, the Ravens pulled out all the stops; the visuals were strewn across all of their platforms. When you are trying to sell tickets after an epic embarrassment of a season, you take any PR win you can get.

But the reality is, as we and, basically, only we have been telling you, this is not how you would want to operate with your best player.

The league knows it, and fully understands how much leverage this front office ceded to Jackson when they failed to get a new deal done before the start of the League Year and those same general managers and execs and agents won’t be surprised in the least if/when he requests a trade again.

History keeps repeating for the worst around here.

Longtime NFLPA executive Mark Levin, who worked closely with Jackson on his previous negotiation, fully expects another trade demand if the Ravens don’t get him extended soon, and there is no reason for Jackson to budge. And this situation is not normal between best-of-breed quarterbacks and NFL franchises, but it keeps happening between these sides.

Jackson staying away, with the entire offense being new and Doyle lacking any experience actually doing this job, says so much more than he would ever utter out loud. Jackson doesn’t provide much fodder, if he had a message to share about OTAs it would be all over his socials, and he has proven to be incredibly adroit and calculated at handling his ongoing contract issues with this team.

It’s not about what could be accomplished with him on the field. It’s negligible and it's only May and these aren’t even real practices. It’s about how it looks and what it means to have a $50M quarterback, who asked for a trade once already, choosing to be elsewhere instead of here.

It’s about a rookie coach and eventually a rookie coordinator having to address it, too. It's about being a year behind the Bills and Josh Allen, again. It's about this QB having to claw and fight and wait for a fair market deal, again and again.

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