On the primary Sunday of the common season, ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen reported that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson rejected a contract provide that might have paid him $133 million absolutely assured at signing. Very just lately, ESPN analyst Ryan Clark reported the identical factor.
Here’s what we stated in September, because it nonetheless applies: “The reporting has some gaps that make a full evaluation of the provide unattainable. What would the first-year money move have been? How a lot of the contract would have been assured for harm? How a lot of the harm assure would have transformed to a full assure in March 2023, since there’s no method they’d have minimize him after just one 12 months, given no matter they’d have been paying him in 2022?”
It’s unattainable to completely consider a deal with out understanding the total worth of it. Every cost, each assure, each vesting deadline, each incentive, each escalator, each de-escalator, each exercise bonus, each roster bonus, each possibility bonus, each per-game roster bonus, and each different system by which cash would move from crew to play.
It’s additionally irrelevant at this level. Circumstances have modified. Jackson’s rookie contract is over. He completed the season with an harm that prompted him to overlook quite a lot of video games, for the second straight 12 months.
Also, different long-term, big-money quarterback offers (akin to those given to Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray) presumably have grow to be cautionary tales.
Will the Ravens make the identical provide now? Will they provide extra? Will they provide much less?
Are they content material to let Lamar check the market below the non-exclusive franchise tag? Would they match another person’s provide? Would they be keen to take a pair of first-round picks as a substitute? Would they commerce him for one thing lower than two ones?
These are the necessary questions now. Hearing once more (and sure once more) that he was provided $133 million absolutely assured at signing means nothing in isolation, and it means even much less given the passage of time.
So until Lamar or the NFL Players Association or the Ravens are keen to reveal the total contents of any presents which have been made, it’s unattainable for anybody to name a deal good or dangerous, honest or unfair, passable or unsatisfactory. While that received’t cease individuals from reporting incomplete details concerning the negotiations, previous or current, those that see the data ought to do not forget that there’s no approach to choose the total deal with out understanding (spoiler alert) the total deal.
Report resurfaces that Lamar Jackson turned down $133 million absolutely assured initially appeared on Pro Football Talk
