The long-simmering awkwardness between the Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson seems to be inching toward a potential boil, especially after the recent column from Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun suggesting that the team should explore trading him.
The overriding problem traces, in many ways, to the fact that Jackson has never had an agent. It has made Jackson, whose primary job is to play football, the primary contact for all discussions and negotiations with the team. While Jackson’s mother is often referred to as his agent, she can’t talk to the team, and the team can’t talk to her, because she’s not licensed by the NFL Players Association to represent players in their contract talks. All such discussions happen directly by and between Jackson and the team.
It has led to chronic communications issues, as detailed in the unsuccessfully hidden 61-page ruling from the collusion grievance that was filed after Jackson and other veteran quarterbacks didn’t get fully-guaranteed contracts in the wake of the Deshaun Watson deal (and the clear admonition from the league to teams that followed it). Among other things, the ruling revealed that talks between Jackson and the Ravens were bogged down at one point because Jackson said the mic on his phone was broken.
Late in 2021 and 2022, when Jackson had clearly earned the contract he had yet to receive, he had late-season injuries through which he didn’t attempt to play. Given the changes to the market since Jackson signed his five-year, $52.5 million deal in early 2023, there were offseason indications he’s ready for an adjustment. It hasn’t happened. Coincidentally, he has another late-season injury through which, as of last night, he didn’t attempt to play. (And, frankly, no player who believes he has earned the security of a new deal should accept the extra physical risk without having appropriate protections in place.)
The absence of an agent creates other practical impediments to the broader relationship. Sometimes, the team has difficult topics that need to be addressed. It’s one thing to have a buffer who can take the message from the organization and properly couch it to the player, in a way that doesn’t piss him off. It’s quite another for the team to have to say what needs to be said directly to the player.
Given some of the surprising nuggets that were tucked into Preston’s column (issues with condition, diet, sleeping in meetings, staying up late playing video games), it’s not hard to conclude that the organization has become frustrated with a two-time MVP who is closing in on his 30th birthday. Because the team has no liaison through which such concerns can be properly filtered without causing a flareup, what can the Ravens do to change things?
Frankly, Preston’s column may have been part of an effort to send a message to Jackson, or to preposition the fanbase for what may happen next. Which leads to the biggest question at hand.
Are the Ravens ready for a fresh start at the position? Is Jackson?
Because Jackson talks to no one (and has no agent to talk for him), no one knows what he wants. There’s a sense in some circles that Jackson would like to play for the Dolphins. With Miami staring at $99 million in dead money over the next two years due to the disastrous Tua Tagovailoa contract, it’s not happening before 2028.
And 2028 looms large. Jackson’s $74.5 million cap number in 2027, the final year of his current deal, would spark a franchise tag of $89 million in 2028. This means that, barring another new market-level deal negotiated directly with Jackson, the Ravens have two more years before he likely becomes a truly unrestricted free agent.
Trading him becomes something to at least consider. But here’s the problem. Three years ago, when he was available to anyone who wanted him for two first-round picks, no one even tried to sign him to an offer sheet. And while the excuses from the likes of the Falcons regarding injuries and Baltimore’s ability to match may have been a pretext for collusion, he’ll be three years older in the 2026 offseason. It will be even easier this time around for teams to come up with reasons to not make a play for him.
Will a team surrender significant assets to trade for Jackson? Even more importantly, will a team be willing/able to negotiate Jackson’s next contract with him directly? Put another way, will another team want to step into Baltimore’s shoes when it comes to having no one to serve as the intermediary with the most important player on the team?
If there’s an interest in trading Jackson (and, obviously, the Ravens will downplay it, if only to increase their leverage) various planets must align perfectly. Beyond the trade package and the contract, it’ll have to be a team with which Jackson wants to play.
Bottom line? It’s possible that either or both team and player would like a clean slate. It’s also possible that there will be no practical way to make it happen to the satisfaction of both sides.
