With Lamar Jackson forced to truly represent himself (and not secretly use an agent not certified by the NFL Players Association), Jackson has done what he should have done a long time ago.
He has told the Ravens he wants to play somewhere else.
Jackson has never said that publicly before today. Last week, when we reported that his non-certified agent had been telling other teams that Lamar wants to move on, plenty of Ravens fans lost their minds, accusing us of making it up, being clueless, and/or anything and everything else aimed at undermining the fact that he wants out.
Now we all know he wants out. That’s good. It would be better if he’d done it last year, or even earlier.
He didn’t seem to be willing to potentially become a villain for the team’s fanbase. But that’s one of the necessary steps toward getting what a player wants, if the player wants out.
That’s how Deshaun Watson initiated a process that ended with a trade to the Browns. Watson made it clear to the Texans that he was done.
I’ll explore in a separate item whether Jackson’s belated effort to seek a trade will make any difference. It possibly won’t. If he’d taken a stand earlier, it possibly would have.
Regardless, it’s good to see Jackson starting to do the things he needs to do in order to get the contract he deserves. It still remains to be seen whether he’ll get it.
