Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson speaks during a news conference on Thursday. (Kevin Richardson, Kevin Richardson / Baltimore Sun)
What changed for Lamar Jackson in the two months between requesting that the Ravens trade him and signing a five-year extension with Baltimore that reportedly makes him the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback annually?
Jackson declined to specify during Thursday’s news conference at the team’s facility in Owings Mills in his first conversation with the media in five months. But earlier in the day, the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player officially put pen to paper on a deal that will keep him with the Ravens through 2027, ending a standoff that threatened to overshadow a third season.
“I’m not really worried about what happened in the past,” Jackson said. “We’re going to keep it about these next five years and keep it about what’s going on today. It’s a great day. … That’s all I’m focused on right now.”
The contract is reportedly worth $260 million with $185 million guaranteed — including $112.5 million fully guaranteed at signing — and includes a no-franchise tag clause as well as a no-trade clause. It falls short of the fully guaranteed $230 million contract Deshaun Watson received from the Cleveland Browns last offseason, but it gives the 26-year-old quarterback the financial stability he has lacked during his first five NFL seasons.
“We just had some mutual agreements in the terms and stuff like that,” Jackson said. “It just fit the both of us, and it’s why we’re here right now.
“I didn’t really care for other teams. I wanted to get something done here.”
Yet, over the past two years, there were signs that day might not come.
There was Jackson reportedly turning down an offer from the Ravens in September worth a guaranteed $200 million.
There was Jackson, who doesn’t have an agent and entrusts his mother, Felicia Jones, as his manager, representing himself in what general manager Eric DeCosta called the most difficult negotiation he has been a part of.
There were stretches over the past two years when the sides didn’t speak with one another as fatigue set in for the organization and its star quarterback.
There were the teams that contacted Jackson after the Ravens placed the $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag on him in March, though Jackson said he never had any interest in joining them.
There were what DeCosta called “dark days” and uncertainty as to whether a deal would actually be consummated.
There was, most significantly, Jackson’s request on March 2 to be traded, which he revealed in a tweet a few weeks later and one minute before Ravens coach John Harbaugh spoke with the media during the NFL owners meetings in Arizona.
“It’s been a long stretch, but we know Lamar,” DeCosta said. “We had a lot of conviction that this was the right thing to do. It made a lot of sense. It just took a lot of patience.”
DeCosta alluded to tough news conferences the team has had to endure in the past but called Thursday’s “great” — and with good reason.
The Ravens are 45-16 over the past five regular seasons with Jackson under center, a winning percentage bettered only by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and two-time league MVP Patrick Mahomes during that span. When healthy, Jackson, whom the Ravens drafted 32nd overall out of Louisville in 2018, has proved to be one of the game’s most dynamic and electric players.
During his tenure, Jackson, who has missed 11 games the past two seasons because of injuries, has completed 63.7% of his passes for 12,209 yards with 101 touchdowns and 38 interceptions. He has also rushed for 4,437 yards and 24 touchdowns, becoming the only quarterback to surpass 1,000 rushing yards in multiple seasons (2019, 2020).
Still, for all his star power and success, there was uncertainty about whether he would be back.
On March 2, Jackson asked to be traded, and five days later the Ravens responded by issuing a $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag that allowed the quarterback to negotiate with other teams and Baltimore to match any offer he signed. Jackson confirmed Thursday that other teams reached out to express their interest, but he said he wanted to stay with the Ravens all along.
“We didn’t really ever stop negotiating,” Jackson said. “We were always keeping in contact. Eric [DeCosta] reached out to me a lot, and I would comment back. Coach [Harbaugh] reached out to me, and we went back and forth with that.”
They weren’t the only ones.
Last month, it was reported that one of Jackson’s requests during negotiations was that the Ravens acquire wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr., a free agent, and the Arizona Cardinals’ DeAndre Hopkins. On Thursday, Jackson said he merely asked the organization if landing both would be possible.
The Ravens appeased Jackson by signing Beckham, a two-time All-Pro, three weeks ago. Then they drafted wide receiver Zay Flowers out of Boston College with the 22nd overall pick last week to bolster a receiving corps that also includes Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay and veteran Nelson Agholor, whom the Ravens also signed in free agency.
“I was hype,” Jackson said about Beckham. “Odell is a Super Bowl-winning receiver. I felt like before his injury [last year], he was going to be the Super Bowl MVP [with the Los Angeles Rams].”
Yet, there were other questions that continued to linger.
DeCosta previously spoke about the challenges and awkwardness of dealing with a player serving as his own agent during contract negotiations, a point he reiterated Thursday.
Jackson, meanwhile, said he was approached by agents “every week” who wanted to represent him, but he plans to continue to represent himself.
“I’ve known what I was capable of,” he said, adding that he’s been medically cleared after a PCL injury kept him out of the last six games of last season, including an AFC wild-card round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. “I thought we would get the process done.
“I don’t want to put my trust in anyone else but myself.”
Despite the prolonged negotiations between star player and team, Jackson said “it’s a business at the end of the day.” That business includes a reported $72.5 million signing bonus and guaranteed base salaries of $7.5 million this year that escalate to $14.25 million in 2024, $20.25 million in 2025 and $51.25 million in 2026 and 2027. The three-year cash flow of $156 million is reportedly the highest in NFL history.
“It has been a long wait,” DeCosta said. “But we were all in the same place all along, and we’re all in the same place moving forward.”
After two years of questions, acrimony and doubt, Jackson seems happy about the place he and the Ravens finally reached.
“It means a lot, just to have guys like your head coach and GM wanting you to be here, believing in you, believing you can help your team achieve the ultimate goal within football, and within NFL football at that,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to go any other place.”
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Originally published at Tribune News Service