The Baltimore Ravens are embarking on one of the most important off-seasons in franchise history. There are plenty of questions that they will have to answer, including who their next offensive coordinator will be as well as who will be playing quarterback for the team in 2023 and beyond.
When listing out one move that every NFL team must make during the 2023 offseason, Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com picked giving Jackson a fully guaranteed (or close to it) deal for Baltimore. He talked about how using a franchise tag on Jackson would hurt the Ravens ability to spend in 2023, so it would save them cap room now to agree to a long-term extension.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport recently expressed a belief that Jackson will receive the exclusive franchise tag, which projects to be worth just north of $45 million. Theoretically, that would kick the Lamar dilemma down the road, while hurting the Ravens’ ability to spend on the 2023 salary cap. They would save considerable cap space by agreeing to his long-term contract now…Ravens execs clearly don’t like the precedent that was set by the Browns when they fully guaranteed Deshaun Watson’s $230 million contract. Kyler Murray received $160 million in guarantees from the Cardinals. Jackson is obviously a superior player to both and should expect nothing less. If certain NFL franchises don’t want to guarantee contracts for their best players, maybe it’s time they let those superstars go to teams that will. Every other major American sport provides guaranteed deals, even for role players. The Ravens are poised to use the exclusive tag on Jackson because they know other teams would give up first-round picks and a guaranteed contract to get the 2019 MVP. So he’s absolutely right to stand his ground.