The approach of the NFL draft spurred the Jets’ trade for Aaron Rodgers, and it may have done the same for Lamar Jackson’s contract extension.
Nearly two years into negotiations and about two months after he requested a trade, Jackson and the Ravens agreed to terms Thursday on a five-year contract, the team announced.
The deal is worth $260 million and includes $185 million guaranteed, per CBS Sports, which makes Jackson the new highest-paid player in NFL history and ends the short reign of Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who signed the previously highest deal 10 days earlier.
“For the last five months there’s been a lot of he-said, she-said, a lot of nail-biting, a lot of head-scratching going on,” Jackson said in a video shared by the Ravens’ Twitter account. “But for the next five years, there’s a lot of [Ravens] Flock going on. Let’s go, baby. Let’s go. Let’s go, man. Can’t wait to get there. Can’t wait to be there. Can’t wait to light up M&T [Bank Stadium] for the next five years. Let’s get it.”
Perhaps the timing, with the deal coinciding with the first round of the NFL draft, was a coincidence.
Perhaps both sides viewed it as an artificial deadline, with the Ravens needing to plan for the future if Jackson wasn’t going to play on the franchise tag or stay beyond 2023.
The deal meant there was no need for the Ravens to trade up in the first round for a quarterback any longer.
Jackson, who has no agent, reportedly turned down a five-year, $250 million contract ($133 million guaranteed) before last season and he tweeted that he turned down three years, $133 million fully guaranteed.
The Ravens were adamant that they wanted to get a deal done with Jackson and were not going to trade him — and their actions backed up the words.
The Ravens signed receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to give Jackson the kind of weapon that he was missing during the first five seasons of his career. And more help could be on the way.
“Truzzzz,” Beckham wrote on Twitter with the fingers-crossed emoji after Jackson’s deal was reported.
Ever since Deshaun Watson broke the NFL mold and signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract with the Browns last offseason, Jackson had eyed a similar structure.
But it appears that his stance changed due to the combination of Hurts’ deal (five years for $255 million with $179.3 million guaranteed) and the realization over the last seven weeks that no other team was willing to negotiate a monster deal with him and sacrifice two first-round draft picks, the required compensation under the franchise tag.
By signing Jackson, the Ravens are expected to significantly lower his salary-cap charge from the $32.4 million that would’ve come with the non-exclusive franchise tag.
That would free up space to make another splash, such as trading for Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins, near the anniversary of the draft-day trade between the teams last year that angered Jackson because receiver Marquise Brown was shipped to Arizona.
Jackson, 26, is a former MVP and two-time Pro Bowler who has missed 11 starts (one in the playoffs) due to injury over the last two seasons. Once-promising Ravens seasons ended abruptly both times.
The concern is whether his style of play — he has 1,485 rushing attempts over the last four seasons — is sustainable over the long haul or if he is bound to be injured repeatedly until his career is cut short.
The Ravens decided to stick with a risk they know well instead of testing unknown waters.