Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz discuss why it’s so important for the Baltimore Ravens to extend Lamar Jackson this offseason. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
View more
Advertisement
Video Transcript
Lamar Jackson is only under contract in Baltimore until 2027, so you can’t push money down the line if the years aren’t there.
I mean, Lamar Jackson has a $75 million cap hit, both in 2026 and in 2027.
So in order for the Ravens to clear up cap space on Lamar Jackson, they’re gonna have to extend Lamar Jackson, add years there, to then turn some stuff into signing bonuses.
Whatever kind of funny money you have to do to clear up cap space, you do that when you have time.
So that’s the Ravens’ number one priority at this point to clear up cap space.
It’s adding years onto the deal, extending Lamar Jackson, and then you’re able to alleviate some of that cap space as you push it into 2028 and beyond.
Advertisement
I think part of what makes this really interesting is that because Lamar doesn’t have an agent, nobody’s out there leaking information for Lamar.
Nobody really knows what Lamar wants, other than Lamar.
But what we do know is that when we’ve seen him in the past, he wants security, he wants a reasonable deal that gets him back to the market, and he wants a ton of that money to be fully guaranteed.
So the Ravens are likely going to, in order to get the flexibility that, that they want right now, they’re likely going to have to make Lamar Jackson one of, if not, the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL for the next five years.
Advertisement
Like, that just seems to be the proof of concept of what we have.
Lamar’s going to have to be willing to agree to that.
The Ravens are gonna have to feel like they’ve still got five great years of Lamar, who’s had some health concerns because of the way he plays the game.
They’re gonna have to make sure that he’s the guy.
I don’t think there’s any question that Lamar is the guy, but if you’re the Ravens, you gotta look at it and say, “Damn, we are in our Super Bowl window right now, which means we better sign this, and we better get this done.”
And if you’re Lamar, you know that they’re that desperate.
Advertisement
Like, you know that they need this more than you need it.
They need you to, to agree to this level of long-term security so they can push some money around.
I- this becomes wildly interesting because the Ravens lack flexibility to, to, I think, put a Super Bowl team around Lamar, unless Lamar gives them that flexibility.
If you feel like in the next four years you are Super Bowl contenders because of what Lamar Jackson brings to you and to your franchise, you have to do whatever it takes.
People in this league get hired and fired because of what they do at that specific position.
Just ask Kwesi Adolfo Menza, the general manager in Minnesota, who just lost his job because he made the wrong decision at the quarterback position.
Advertisement
So if you’re the Ravens, and you’re looking at it and saying, “Well, we might be terrible in 2032 because Lamar is past his prime,” doesn’t matter because of what he brings to you right now.
We say this every time with Lamar: two-time, could’ve been three-time MVP, and I, I love that context that we give.
Like, you have Hall of Fame level, like, first-ballot Hall of Fame level success on Lamar Jackson’s name.
When you have that, I- you’re right, you can’t give a damn about five years from now.
And guess what?
If you win a Super Bowl, your fans won’t give a damn about five years from now, either.