Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson wants a new contract. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti wants to give him one, before the start of free agency.
In theory, it shouldn’t be difficult. In practice, it was a struggle the last time around.
In early 2023, Jackson had no existing contract. The Ravens, after months of failed negotiations, eventually extended a five-year, $262.5 million offer. It made him, at the time, the highest-paid player in the league, with an annual average of $52.5 million.
Since then, the market has moved (as to new money) to $60 million per year (if we ignore the new-money analysis regarding Josh Allen’s latest deal). And so the goal presumably will be to get Jackson beyond Dak Prescott’s current high-water mark.
Jackson has two years and $104 million left on his current contract. To get to a new-money average of, say, $61 million, the Ravens would have to offer a three-year extension at $183 million.
But there are no actual “extensions” in the NFL. The old contract gets ripped up, and a new one takes its place. With the two remaining years at $104 million, the Ravens could offer five years, $287 million. That would boost the new-money average to $61 million, even if the true average from signing would be $57.4 million.
Getting the right structure would be the issue. Last time, Jackson got a signing bonus of $72.5 million. If he receives $80 million up front on a new deal, his cap number (coupled with a minimum salary of $1.3 million) would be $17.3 million plus the $22.5 million in 2026 allocation from his prior contract. That’s $39.8 million — creating cap space of $34.7 million in advance of 2026 free agency.
They’d also have to figure out how much of the new contract would be guaranteed. In 2023, he wanted all five years to be fully guaranteed. He ultimately agreed to a deal with three years of full guarantees.
From a big-picture standpoint, there’s a fairly simple path to get Jackson under contract for five more years, to make him the highest-paid quarterback again (based on the new-money fiction), and to fully guarantee all pay in 2026, 2027, and 2028.
The question is whether Jackson wants to leapfrog Prescott by $1 million per year, or whether Jackson wants to push the bar even higher. The deeper into the sixties Jackson wants to go, the trickier it becomes.
If all else fails, the Ravens (as Bisciotti said Tuesday) can exercise their right to restructure the deal again, kicking the salary-cap can down the road.
Regardless of where it goes, the Ravens eventually will be taking significant cap charges whenever the relationship with Jackson ends. Currently, they have him under contract for two more years. (After that, he’ll become a free agent; he has a no-tag clause in his deal.) Whether the two sides extend it beyond that remains to be seen.
The Giants are getting their young quarterback involved as they court John Harbaugh to be their next head coach.
Via NFL Media, Jaxson Dart was in the building and met with Harbaugh during the coach’s interview on Wednesday.
The No. 25 overall pick of the 2025 draft, Dart appeared in 14 games with 12 starts as a rookie. He finished the season having completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 2,272 yards with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Dart, however, suffered multiple injuries and was checked for a concussion multiple times over the course of his rookie season.
Still, Dart displayed his potential to solidify himself as being a part of the Giants’ present and future. While his opinion may or may not hold weight, getting him acquainted with Harbaugh during the interview process is unlikely to be a detriment.
Having interviewed candidates to satisfy the Rooney Rule, the Giants can hire Harbaugh at any time. But multiple reports indicate that Harbaugh is still currently expected to meet with the Titans and Falcons about their vacancies this week before potentially taking any more meetings or making a decision about his destination.
The Ravens announced that they have wrapped up their 10th head coaching interview.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is the latest candidate to meet with the team. Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz also had an interview with the Ravens on Wednesday.
Minter was a defensive assistant on John Harbaugh’s staff from 2017-2020 and then spent a year at Vanderbilt before joining Harbaugh’s brother Jim as the defensive coordinator at Michigan. He joined the younger Harbaugh in making the move to the Chargers in 2024.
Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Broncos quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Davis Webb, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, former Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores have also interviewed with Baltimore. Their General Manager Eric DeCosta indicated that the team expects to have around 16 interviews before whittling down the list of candidates.
With nine head coach vacancies, Brian Flores may end up getting one of the jobs.
But for now, he’s spending some time with a team that may like to have him as a top assistant.
Via multiple reports, Flores is interviewing with Washington for their defensive coordinator vacancy.
The Commanders fired Joe Whitt Jr. after the completion of the regular season. Head coach Dan Quinn had taken back defensive play-calling duties during the season, making the move unsurprising.
After three seasons as Dolphins head coach, Flores spent 2022 with the Steelers as senior defensive assist nd linebackers coach. He’s been the Vikings’ defensive coordinator since 2023, but his contract is up, making him eligible to interview with other teams for a lateral move.
But PFT reported earlier this week that the Vikings are confident they’ll be able to retain Flores if he does not get a head coaching job.
Marcus Freeman’s name has come up for more than one job in this year’s coaching cycle.
But even though he was the favorite to land the Giants job at one point, Freeman has been consistent in saying that he’s continuing as the head coach at Notre Dame.
In a Wednesday press conference, Freeman was asked about the NFL rumors that have surfaced this offseason and the Fighting Irish HC spun them as being a net-positive.
“I’m the head coach at Notre Dame,” Freeman said. “I’ve said this before that individual recognition, individual success, NFL interest — those are all a reflection of team success and where this football program is. I’ve used some of the interest from the NFL to personally gain wisdom from maybe some of the G.M.s or front-office executives that you get a chance to talk to about your players, but also about what they view as a successful coach. Maybe it’s an NFL coach, but what are some of the things they’ve seen that have made a coach successful in their organization or franchise — and maybe not so successful.
“So, I utilize these opportunities through conversations to gain knowledge myself to be the best head coach I can be of the Notre Dame football program. So, again, that’s where my mindset is. I don’t control the noise, but I know the noise that’s in my head and where my focus is.”
Freeman had made clear his intent to stay on with Notre Dame with a social media post in late December. But even as the rumors persist, Freeman says he doesn’t mind them. In fact, he welcomes the chatter.
“The only statement I put out was let’s run it back,” Freeman said. “I was intentional about that. I don’t need to come out with a statement every time one of these job openings happen. You know I always say the future is uncertain. That’s what I tell our players, it’s what I tell myself — it’s the reality of life. But everything I want and everything that I need personally can be achieved right here as the head coach of this program.
“So, I hope this is something we have to address every year, I really do, because it means we’re having a lot of success right here at Notre Dame. If this isn’t something we’d have to address, then there’s bigger issues within what we’re doing as a football program because as your program has success, these types of things are going to occur.”
Freeman is not planning to be an NFL head coach at this point. But he did pause when asked if he would like to have one of those 32 jobs at some point in his career.
“Do I want to be? I mean, I don’t really — I’ve never done it,” Freeman said. “I don’t know enough about it. Maybe sometime in the future, if it’s the right time and it’s what I think is right for me, then maybe I’ll pursue it. But I don’t love wasting time thinking about things that aren’t right in front of me.
“So, I don’t know what I’ll want in however much length of time from now. I don’t know. But I know right now that I am as convicted and motivated to being the best head coach of the Notre Dame football program as I can be.”
Freeman, 39, has compiled a 43-12 record in his four seasons with the Fighting Irish since taking over for Brian Kelly.
