Why aren’t the Ravens extending Lamar Jackson?
One of the most electric, dynamic, all around fun players to watch every Sunday is Lamar Jackson. Watching him dance out of danger or juke other NFL players out of their shoes will never get old. Jackson already has an MVP and 2 Pro Bowl appearances under his belt, while still only going to be 25 until the end of this season. He led the league in passing TDs in 2019 and is the only QB ever to have back-to-back 1000 yard rushing seasons. All of these stats and accolades and the Baltimore Ravens are holding out on paying him.
The current NFL revolves around offense. Defense is important, but if you have a top 5 offense you can get away with an average defense. The opposite does not hold true. The Ravens are a smart organization that know this, so why did they trade away their best wide receiver? Do they see something everyone else doesn’t in Rashod Bateman? Bateman put up 515 yards on 46 receptions in his rookie campaign. Not bad considering the starting QB only played 12 games and was not himself for a few of them. However, Baltimore cannot be expecting him to put up WR1 production. As it sits, he’s a WR3 at best that could potentially move to a WR2 this season. They still have their stud TE Mark Andrews, but everything after him goes downhill fast.
Besides the production aspect of Hollywood Brown, you cannot understate what his friendship means to Lamar Jackson. The NFL is a business, but is that business trying to piss off or upset your best player? You didn’t see LAR out shopping Cooper Kupp after this year or Cincinnati seeing what they can get for Jamar Chase. No, those teams like to keep their star QBs happy. I know Kupp and Chase are much better than Brown, but the idea is still the same. When you have a player of Lamar’s caliber, you want him to want to play for you. Moving Brown did not help that.
With the big contracts coming out recently, especially Deshaun Watson’s in Cleveland, the Ravens can’t be expecting to save any money by “waiting to see” how this upcoming year goes. I personally don’t think Jackson is worth “Mahomes money”, but I would certainly give him 43-45 a year. With the way the Rams have been spending money, we now know the salary cap is just a “fake” number, so why haven’t the Ravens extended him? Logically, it doesn’t make sense. His price won’t go down, it can really only go up. The Ravens can only lose out on more money by waiting to pay him. Unless they were trying to get this year out of him for 23 million, franchise tag him next year and then move off him before the 2024 season. Sounds crazy, but it’s seeming more and more like a possibility every day.
In Lamar Jackson’s 4 year career, he has already ran the ball 615 times for 3,673 yards. That rushing attempt number is already good for 13th all time by a quarterback. In the 2 extra years the Ravens might be squeezing out of Lamar Jackson (like I said above), he will more than likely add on another 250 attempts (a very conservative estimate). That would move him into 3rd all time (dependent on what Russell Wilson does). We all know what happens to quarterbacks when they run a lot. Injuries. As is the case with running backs, once the injuries start for quarterbacks whose play styles rely heavily on their legs, they don’t stop.
With the trade of Brown and the lack of a contract extension so far, it seems very clear what the Ravens are doing with Lamar Jackson. They want to get the last 2-3 years out of his legs without having to pay him big money. If they franchise tag him next year, it’s very possible Jackson could request (or demand) a trade. Either way, it doesn’t look like Baltimore wants to be locked in long-term. Ravens fans should savor every game this year just in case.