Tuesday looms as the subsequent deadline within the Ravens’ quest to succeed in a contract extension with quarterback Lamar Jackson.
It’s the date by which they must apply the franchise tag to their most necessary participant to maintain him off the free agent market, which begins March 15. In the absence of hints {that a} long-term cope with Jackson is imminent, most NFL observers count on the Ravens to make use of the tag to purchase time.
But this long-anticipated transfer would inform us little about the place the Ravens’ negotiations with Jackson are headed. Instead, it will introduce a sequence of questions destined to dominate discourse across the franchise for the foreseeable future. Here’s a take a look at these questions:
Exclusive or nonexclusive?
The first vital query revolves across the franchise tag itself, which is available in two types.
Most groups go for the unique tag, wishing to maintain their star gamers off the market totally. With that larger management comes a better value, projected to be about $45 million for a quarterback in 2023. Teams have usually tried to keep away from having franchise quarterbacks play below the tag, as a result of the cap hit makes it tough to do different enterprise. But we now have seen it, with Dak Prescott in Dallas in 2020 and Kirk Cousins in Washington in 2016 and 2017. Prescott finally signed an extension with the Cowboys. Cousins hit free company in his prime and signed a totally assured three-year, $84 million cope with the Minnesota Vikings.
Ravens common supervisor Eric DeCosta declined Wednesday to specify which tag the group would use, however has mentioned the group might match $45 million for Jackson into its 2023 cap if there’s no different palatable possibility. “Those are big, big numbers,” he mentioned at his season-ending information convention with coach Jon Harbaugh in January. “We’re fortunate, I think, that we have a better salary cap [situation] than most. We have a lot more room than most teams do, which was by design three or four years ago.”
The Ravens might additionally go the cheaper ($32.416 million) nonexclusive route, which might give Jackson freedom to signal a proposal sheet with one other group. Baltimore would have 5 days to match any provide and would obtain two first-round picks as compensation in the event that they let Jackson go to a different group.
There are arguments for utilizing the nonexclusive tag. If Jackson have been allowed to buy offers with different groups, he would possibly be taught that nobody is prepared to match or exceed the absolutely assured $230 million Deshaun Watson obtained from the Cleveland Browns final offseason. Perhaps that data would convey his negotiations with the Ravens to a head. But there could be danger. What if a competing suitor frontloaded its provide in a fashion that might be tough for the Ravens to match? They could be left with two draft picks that is perhaps value lower than the haul DeCosta might get hold of if he dangled Jackson on the commerce market.
DeCosta mentioned in January he has weighed the unique vs. nonexclusive query every single day. Now, the choice is upon him.
Have the Ravens and Jackson discovered any traction in latest negotiations?
Harbaugh and DeCosta didn’t give specifics of negotiations Wednesday on the NFL scouting mix, however they mentioned they’re optimistic {that a} deal will get accomplished.
DeCosta has mentioned his driving objective is to succeed in an extension with the quarterback round whom the Ravens have constructed their offense and lots of of their future plans. But he supplied no phantasm in January that these renewed negotiations could be any simpler than the talks that failed to provide an extension earlier than final season. We don’t know the precise numbers, however a number of studies have mentioned Jackson, who represents himself, is in search of a record-setting assured deal and that the Ravens have stopped considerably in need of assembly his value.
DeCosta described the fragile dance of constructing round Jackson the participant whereas negotiating with Jackson the businessman: “I told Lamar that, ‘Hey, this thing has been a burden for both of us,’ I said, ‘But when this thing is over, we are going to feel like a million bucks,’ and that’s truly how I feel.”
He spoke like a person who’s able to pursue a cope with Jackson for as an extended because it takes, which, as we noticed with the Cowboys and Prescott, may very well be one other yr. But will the Ravens, whether or not it’s subsequent month or subsequent yr, attain a degree the place monetary compromise with their famous person appears unreachable? Also take into account that we don’t know Jackson’s present pondering on the matter. He hasn’t talked to reporters because the first week in December and hasn’t addressed his contract since September.
If negotiations haven’t progressed, would possibly the Ravens commerce Jackson earlier than the draft?
DeCosta was unwilling to broach this topic Wednesday, however an enormous commerce could be on his menu of selections assuming the Ravens use the franchise tag on Jackson. He’s prepared to make daring strikes with key gamers as we noticed when he flipped sort out Orlando Brown Jr. and vast receiver Marquise Brown, each unhappy with their roles on the Ravens, for first-round draft picks. Of course, a Jackson deal could be on a complete totally different scale; he’s one of the necessary gamers in franchise historical past and, on the prime age of 26, one of the electrifying abilities within the NFL. In a quarterback-obsessed league, groups nearly at all times pony as much as hold such gamers.
But if the Ravens don’t see a path to an extension, DeCosta must ponder how a lot draft capital he might get hold of for Jackson and whether or not it will put him in place to decide on a successor at quarterback. DeCosta and Harbaugh made it clear in January they don’t have any intention of rebuilding. The Ravens have a championship-caliber protection, an excellent offensive line and top-of-the-line working video games within the league. Would they entrust this playoff-ready equipment to a rookie quarterback or, in a stopgap situation, to Jackson’s backup, Tyler Huntley?
There are quarterback prospects within the 2023 draft who might make the Ravens suppose twice. Bryce Young of Alabama makes up for his slight construct with uncommon imaginative and prescient, really feel and accuracy. C.J. Stroud of Ohio State is a ravishing passer. Will Levis of Kentucky has a strong arm and a 230-pound body to match. Anthony Richardson of Florida might need extra attractive bodily instruments than any of them. Say the Ravens traded with the Atlanta Falcons, a group often linked to Jackson. Would Atlanta’s No. 8 choose put them in place to land one in all these quarterbacks, or would DeCosta nonetheless should commerce up within the draft?
These are the eventualities he must sport out if he’s contemplating a megadeal in April, per week or two earlier than the draft.
If the Ravens don’t commerce Jackson, what then?
The subsequent key date could be July 15, the deadline for reaching an extension earlier than the franchise tag locks in for 2023. Of the eight gamers tagged final offseason, 4 reached offers earlier than the cutoff. Jackson’s former teammate, Brown, was amongst those that performed below the tag, and he received a Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Ravens have used the tag on seven gamers through the years, and a number of other have performed full seasons below it, most just lately outdoors linebacker Matthew Judon in 2020. But they’ve by no means gone this route with a quarterback.
Jackson could be compensated nicely in 2023 if he indicators the tag, the selection most stars have made through the years. But he could be below no obligation to make that call rapidly. He might maintain out for some or most of coaching camp to sign his dissatisfaction with the state of negotiations. That wouldn’t be excellent for the Ravens, who will spend the summer season putting in a brand new offense below just lately employed coordinator Todd Monken. At his introductory information convention, Monken praised Jackson as an “elite” expertise however expressed little nervousness over the prospect of a holdout.
“Sure, he’ll be behind, but it’s still just football,” Monken mentioned. “I think sometimes we make this out to be way too much.”
Jackson might refuse to signal the tag and sit out the complete season, as working again Le’Veon Bell did with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2018. But Bell’s holdout was extensively considered as a catastrophe, and no different stars have adopted his instance.
Assuming Jackson would present up sooner or later, the Ravens might play the 2023 season with him as their quarterback and together with his unresolved contract state of affairs hovering over every thing they do. They’re used to it by now. And we may very well be proper again right here right now subsequent yr, asking all the identical questions.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com