Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson signed his five-year deal reportedly value $260 million with the staff Thursday morning, then fielded questions from reporters for the primary time since Dec. 2. Jackson, flanked by normal supervisor Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh, talked for greater than half-hour about why he signed now and why he thinks the Ravens are poised to chase that Super Bowl win he promised when he was drafted 5 years in the past.
Here are three takeaways on what he did and didn’t say:
In Jackson’s telling of the story, he by no means wished to be anyplace however Baltimore.
Ravens followers could possibly be forgiven for feeling whiplash after Jackson mentioned he had requested for a commerce on the finish of March, solely to signal his record-setting extension a month later. But he didn’t clarify Thursday why he fired off that preliminary dread-inducing tweet — saying the staff “has not been interested in meeting my value” — simply as Harbaugh was about to talk with reporters on the NFL homeowners conferences in Arizona.
When he broke his silence in that method, even Jackson’s most ardent Baltimore loyalists steeled themselves for a breakup.
With his deal signed, nevertheless, he mentioned he by no means thought critically about decamping to a different NFL metropolis. “I wouldn’t want to go no other place,” he mentioned. “I really didn’t care for other teams. I just wanted to get something done here.”
When he was requested about recruiting free agent extensive receiver Odell Beckham Jr. though he didn’t have a contract on the time, Jackson mentioned he by no means stopped considering of himself because the Ravens’ quarterback.
So what are we to make of Jackson’s commerce demand on reflection? Was he merely utilizing his bully pulpit — his strongest supply of leverage given the shortage of a proposal sheet from one other staff — to press DeCosta?
For their half, DeCosta and Harbaugh by no means stopped saying Jackson could be their quarterback, and the centerpiece of the franchise, in 2023 and past. They may afford to wade previous his commerce request as a result of the marketplace for quarterbacks, bolstered by the deal Jalen Hurts signed with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier in April, was on their facet. There had been no greener pastures for Jackson to search out.
He talked Thursday about how Baltimore has grow to be his third dwelling (after South Florida and Louisville), how a lot he loves the 1000’s of younger followers who put on his No. 8 jersey and scream his identify each summer season at coaching camp. He mentioned he has not forgotten the promise he made the night time the Ravens traded again into the primary spherical to draft him, to convey one other Super Bowl title to town.
Was he actually unwilling to go away all that behind when his extension negotiations with the Ravens appeared to be going nowhere? We’ll by no means know for positive.
Perhaps, as Jackson urged, it doesn’t matter what he mentioned throughout negotiations. That was enterprise. What occurs from right here is the half followers will bear in mind.
We nonetheless don’t know why the tide of negotiations turned when it did.
Jackson brushed previous the concept Hurts’ extension, $5 million lower than the one he signed, helped him and DeCosta attain the end line. He was thrilled when the Ravens signed Beckham, whom he described as a “Super Bowl-winning receiver,” however didn’t painting that as a decisive occasion both.
So why did he lastly signal after greater than two years of negotiating stops and begins?
Jackson mentioned it was a easy matter of the Ravens providing acceptable phrases. But he additionally acknowledged feeling the urgency to strike a deal this offseason as a substitute of taking part in 2023 on the $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag and going through all the identical questions and anxieties for an additional 12 months.
“I absolutely wanted to get it done,” he mentioned. “I was tired of going back-and-forth.”
DeCosta mentioned the nonexclusive tag, which the Ravens utilized March 7, was finest for the staff and for Jackson, who had an opportunity to really feel out the marketplace for his providers.
A cynic, nevertheless, would possibly describe it as a not-so-subtle technique of forcing Jackson to acknowledge he wouldn’t discover a extra profitable or happier dwelling elsewhere. No “Godfather” provide emerged from one other staff, and Hurts’ deal confirmed what we already knew, that the league’s homeowners weren’t ready to embrace Deshaun Watson’s $230 million, absolutely assured cope with the Cleveland Browns as a brand new regular.
So Jackson was confronted with the sensible limits of his bargaining place. He may try to pressure his manner out of Baltimore in quest of a market-redefining contract that may by no means materialize. Or he may take a proposal that might make him the highest-paid participant in NFL historical past and maintain him with a franchise that has constructed all the things round his skills and character.
Jackson emphasised many times Thursday that he’s a chilly businessman when he must be, and he made essentially the most prudent enterprise choice by re-upping with the Ravens. For all of the misassumptions and feelings — the “he-said, she-said,” in Jackson’s phrases — that swirled across the standoff between staff and famous person, a reunion was the logical endpoint, and either side acknowledged they may budge a little bit to achieve it.
Now that the negotiating is finished, there’s actual pleasure over a brand new Ravens offense constructed round Jackson.
Jackson joked (or maybe he was severe) that he would possibly throw for six,000 yards this season with Beckham, first-round draft choose Zay Flowers, a wholesome Rashod Bateman and Pro Bowl tight finish Mark Andrews amongst his targets. He mentioned his early intelligence on new coordinator Todd Monken suggests “this offense is gonna be pretty smooth.”
So Jackson, who’s wholesome after he completed final season on the sideline due to a knee sprain, shares the optimism that has bubbled forth from Ravens followers over the previous few weeks. A staff that ended 2022 with the least productive extensive receivers within the league and its quarterback scenario in limbo all of a sudden seems prefer it would possibly have the ability to hold in shootouts with Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills.
Jackson by no means ran down his extensive receivers or complained publicly about Monken’s predecessor, Greg Roman, even when the Ravens’ offense was at its most stagnant. But he was certainly ready for a situation like this, with at the very least 4 go catchers able to going off in a given week and a play caller desperate to unfold passes throughout M&T Bank Stadium. Jackson spent so a few years asserting that he was a quarterback, not an excellent runner who occurs to throw some passes. Now, he’s arrange for an trustworthy shot to point out how good he may be.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Harbaugh mentioned, although he acknowledged Jackson may also face larger expectations than ever.
Jackson’s extension may also give DeCosta monetary wiggle room so as to add extra veteran expertise, which he has vowed to do. With $32.4 million put aside for Jackson’s franchise tag, the Ravens needed to make a couple of troublesome selections, similar to waiving veteran defensive finish Calais Campbell. The construction of Jackson’s new deal will give them room to recoup a few of these losses.
“We will get a little bit of relief,” DeCosta mentioned of the staff’s salary-cap place. “We needed it, quite honestly.”
He gave his efforts to construct round Jackson a B grade thus far. “We’ve done a lot of good things, but we haven’t achieved what we said we would and Lamar said he would,” DeCosta mentioned. “We’re not there yet, but we’re going to get there.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com