This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Robert Zeglinski.
It’s high time we stop putting the Baltimore Ravens on a pedestal. After how they’ve treated Lamar Jackson, the Ravens have lost the benefit of the doubt.
Tuesday saw Baltimore place a non-exclusive franchise tag on the former MVP. The label opens the door — albeit at a high price of two first-round picks and a lucrative contract — to Jackson potentially finding a new NFL home. Heck, Jackson is so worth it; he could theoretically find himself running his trademark QB Power and slinging dimes with a longshot option like the San Francisco 49ers.
Ah, but there’s the totally unsurprising rub. Almost immediately after Jackson received a non-exclusive tag, the Atlanta Falcons said they weren’t interested in his talented services. You know, the top team everyone had linked Jackson to should he have actually departed Baltimore. Huh.
Not long after, a notable group of NFL teams would follow the Falcons’ lead as they essentially turned their pockets inside out, frowned, and said, “Whoops, sorry, we only have lint and a few quarters in change!”
How convenient!
No wonder prominent NFL players were enraged over Jackson’s treatment. They’ve been in the negotiating room. They know what goes on at the table behind the scenes better than we’d ever understand. And if they’re insinuating Jackson’s getting one pulled over on him, we should really start to listen. The way a bunch of squads simultaneously distanced themselves from a difference-maker like Jackson at the jump feels way too fishy for it to just be a happy accident.
But we shouldn’t forget the Ravens’ prominent role in this fiasco. If we did, we’d let the biggest culprit off the hook.
It’s the Ravens who stuck with Greg Roman’s limited offense for another three seasons after Jackson’s MVP campaign and never even tried to evolve. Why have a talent like Jackson if you won’t maximize his abilities? The faulty logic boggles the mind.
It is the Ravens who unnecessarily kept contract negotiations with Jackson at an awkward tone. Really? They played hardball with one of the most important players in franchise history simply because he asked for a fully-guaranteed contract? It doesn’t matter if he was representing himself.
It is the Ravens who asked Jackson to do anything and everything for their offense, carrying him on his back week-to-week. It was a recipe for disaster we should’ve seen coming from a mile away. Of course, that was completely unsustainable. Of course, that would get him hurt.
And while Jackson was sidelined, it’d be a cryptic Ravens’ approach to his health status that opened him up to unfair criticism. You’ll never convince me that approach wasn’t deliberate.
Ever since they lost in the first round of the playoffs, the Ravens have been busy doing damage control. They’ve been trying to explain that this Model Organization is merely experiencing a temporary setback, and they should still be trusted. If I didn’t know any better, GM Eric DeCosta has been quite busy pointing the finger at everyone but himself.
I don’t think any recent events are a temporary setback for the Ravens. I think this giant mess is who they are. No matter what happens to Jackson next, it’s the Ravens’ fault.
It always was.
Quick Hits: US.-born WBC players … Remaining top QBs … and more.
- The World Baseball Classic is here! And Freddie Freeman isn’t the only U.S. native on a non-American roster.
- Aaron Rodgers and his ongoing drama headline the list of remaining QBs before free agency.
- March Madness is just around the corner! Here are running trackers of all the Women’s teams and Men’s teams to punch their tickets so far.