Lamar Jackson's Rejected Contract Offers From 2022 Explain What He Might Sign, Now

The NFLPA’s collusion claims against the NFL, and the subsequent rulings by an appeals panel, have revealed critical details of the Ravens past negotiations with All-Pro quarterback Lamar Jackson. They provide a window into what the superstar might still be seeking in his next deal.

The Ravens and Jackson agreed to a mega-deal in April of 2023, after years of struggling to find common ground, and the team is once again far behind the norm in extending that deal into a new pact that runs deeper into Jackson’s remaining prime. According to the panel’s findings, the Ravens made two offers to Jackson that were fully guaranteed - both rejected. That begs the question of why.

And, of course, what does that portend this time around with the sides once again at an impasse?

The Ravens failed to get a new deal completed by owner Steve Bisciotti’s stated preference of prior to the start of free agency last month . Instead, they executed the maximum restructuring possible for cap purposes, which has ceded further leverage to the player in the estimation of general managers, contract negotiators and agents throughout the league.

It became clear after Desean Watson’s fully-guaranteed deal with Cleveland in 2022 that Jackson would request a pact in excess of that, and some could reasonably argue that Jackson was colluded against when NFL owners made not a single inquiry to his services while sitting on a non-exclusive franchise tag. Not a single offer was extended.

Not All Fully-Guaranteed Offers Are Creaed Equally

Baltimore refused to guarantee five-full seasons (what the Browns did for Watson at $230M), and, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, the Ravens’ fully guaranteed offers at the time centered on three-year structures. Those offers were in the $50M-$55M range per season, I’m told, but did not include language that Jackson coveted – no trade and no future franchise tag clauses.

“He wanted a long-term deal with that guaranteed language,” said one source who was privy to those discussions. “He wasn’t going to do a short-term deal without it.”

Teams are beyond hesitant to include those qualifiers in a contract unless they secure the exclusive rights to a player’s services well beyond three years, and those were offers that Ravens execs had to know the quarterback was highly likely to walk away from given the nature of their already-laborious negotiations to that point.

“The no trade and no tag are what create the kind of leverage he has now,” said one top NFL agent who has negotiated many big quarterback deals but was not involved in Jackson’s situation. “If they agree to that (in a three-year structure), he’s in position to potentially hit the market at like, what, age 28? That’s a non-starter from the team’s perspective.”

With the sides at a loggerhead again over a new longer-term deal for Jackson, it doesn’t take extraordinary detective skills to determine Jackson’s position. He’s won another MVP since doing this deal – he should have won two - and the Ravens fired a future Hall of Fame head coach to reboot due largely to an inept defense. Oh, and far lesser quarterbacks like Dak Prescott have reset the market, again, at $60M a year.

“It’s reasonable to conclude that he wants any additional years to be fully guaranteed, with the existing tag and trade language carried over, and with an AAV (average annual value) in excess of Prescott’s by some factor,” said one longtime NFL contract negotiator. “And you could reasonably conclude the team remains unwilling to get there.”

Jackson may well be stuck in enough to hold firm on that demand. And it’s hard to envision him backing off another roughly $200M fully guaranteed no matter what. And the onus remains entirely on the Ravens to purchase the right to addition years of his talent beyond 2027.

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