Zrebiec: At long last, Ravens and Lamar Jackson agree to only resolution that made sense (2024)

The Athletic has live coverage of the Rams vs Ravens in NFL Week 14 action.

This was the only appropriate way for this stalemate to end. Not with Lamar Jackson wearing another team’s jersey, and not with the quarterback reporting to training camp late in the summer and grudgingly agreeing to play the 2023 season under the franchise tag.

The former wouldn’t have looked right and the latter wouldn’t have felt right, but this, courtesy of a short video posted on the Ravens’ Twitter account at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, absolutely did: Jackson, seated in a Bentley and wearing a T-shirt that read “In L We Truss,” flashed that megawatt smile and said, “Can’t wait to light up M&T for the next five years, man. Let’s get it.”

We’ve agreed in principle on a 5-year contract extension with QB @Lj_era8‼️

😈😈😈😈 pic.twitter.com/tQj1Rzqcha

See Also

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens showed how dazzling they can be. Now they'll try to make that the normRavens handle Bengals 34-20 after Joe Burrow exits in the 2nd quarter with a wrist injuryLate for Work 1/19: Lamar Jackson Will Be Ravens’ Quarterback in 2023, Says Former Sports AgentBaltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is asking what his peers haven’t. That’s the point.

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) April 27, 2023

With that, the Ravens’ — and presumably Jackson’s — long nightmare was over.

After more than a year of negotiations, filled with stops and starts, a trade demand and plenty of awkwardness and frustration, the Ravens and Jackson finally found a resolution, and it was the only one that ever made sense. Jackson will be staying in Baltimore as the Ravens quarterback for the foreseeable future.

The Ravens made the 26-year-old the highest-paid player in the history of the NFL, agreeing to a five-year, $260 million extension Thursday that included $185 million in guaranteed money.

The deal Jackson agreed to wasn’t all that different from one of the offers he turned down before the start of the 2022 season. That hardly matters now. What matters is the contract has been agreed to in principle and Jackson will remain in place as the face of the franchise and the engine and leader of a team that annually has Super Bowl aspirations.

Perhaps both sides needed to go through the last few months to remember they needed each other. That was always the reason, and really, at times, the only reason, to be optimistic about the situation reaching a resolution, no matter how ugly it had gotten.

Five years and one day ago, the Ravens traded back and took Jackson with the final pick of the first round in the 2018 NFL Draft. The selection ended a night of misery for Jackson, who sat dejectedly in the waiting room for hours, alongside his mother, waiting to hear his name called. When he did, he perked up and declared, “I’m a Raven,” and vowed that his new employer was “going to get a Super Bowl out of me.”

Jackson took the reins of the Ravens offense for an injured Joe Flacco in the second half of his rookie season and resuscitated an organization that had gone stale as Flacco had gotten older and more banged up. On many Sundays, Jackson’s been one of the greatest shows in the NFL, electrifying fans with his speed, elusiveness and talent. In 2019, he was, far and away, the best player in the NFL and led the Ravens to their best regular season in team history.

He quickly became not only the face of the franchise but of Baltimore’s sporting landscape. Kids all around Baltimore wore No. 8 jerseys. The official signal of the start of a Ravens training camp practice was the shrill screams of fans when Jackson jogged onto the field. Jackson was fun. He was inspiring. He was authentic. And he helped the Ravens win, and win big.

The Ravens proved to be a perfect fit for Jackson, too. They encouraged him to be himself. They built a unique offense they felt best suited his skill set. Even when Jackson became available to negotiate a deal with other teams in recent weeks, the Ravens told the world how much they loved him and how much they wanted to keep him. Meanwhile, team after team felt the need to publicize that they weren’t interested in a quarterback with a 45-16 regular-season record and a knack for making plays and finding the end zone with his arm or legs.

As it turns out, the Ravens, whose approach to the Jackson negotiations made them the source of plenty of daily criticism, played this just right. When they applied the non-exclusive franchise tag to Jackson, which allowed the quarterback to negotiate with other teams, the Ravens were confident it would be proved that nobody loved Jackson as much as they did. And that became abundantly clear. It never appeared Jackson even got an offer from another team, as preposterous as that sounds in a league where the need for quality signal callers far exceeds the supply.

Eric DeCosta was in a tough spot. He was negotiating the highest-of-stakes deal directly with the quarterback, who opted not to hire an agent. DeCosta took plenty of arrows along the way, and there were times when the situation looked like it was wearing on him. It certainly seemed to impact how DeCosta was augmenting his roster this offseason. But the general manager held his ground, refused to negotiate the deal through the media and kept at it persistently, even when Jackson showed no interest for stretches in engaging.

Ultimately, DeCosta got the deal done with a pact that sure seems reasonable for both sides. Sure, DeCosta probably has his Philadelphia Eagles counterpart, Howie Roseman, to thank. The deal Jackson agreed to appears patterned after the recent five-year, $255 million ($179.4 million in total guarantees) contract Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts signed 10 days ago. Perhaps, DeCosta can send Roseman a fruit basket as thanks.

Then again, that’s how these things work. We’ll probably be reminded of that again when Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow get their extensions. The $230 million fully guaranteed deal the Cleveland Browns gave Deshaun Watson always looked like an outlier rather than a precedent.

And credit Jackson, too. All along, he insisted on doing things his way. That meant not hiring an agent. That meant negotiating on his terms, even as much of the football populace told him he was making a big mistake and was out of his league. As he’s always done, Jackson trusted himself, his mother and his small inner circle.

He may not have gotten exactly what he wanted, but it’s hard to argue with being the highest-paid player in the sport. In the end, both sides compromised and were happy with the final result. That’s how a negotiation should be.

Now, finally, everybody can move forward and Jackson can focus on getting ready for what’s a hugely important season for him. He needs to break the pattern of the last two years, when he looks like an MVP candidate for the first third of the season, goes through a stretch of average or poor games, then gets injured and doesn’t return for the rest of the season. The Ravens need Jackson healthy and on the field for their most critical games.

DeCosta and the Ravens can now continue to bolster the roster. That starts with this week’s draft and will continue after it. Jackson’s new deal figures to have a lighter 2023 cap figure than the $32.4 million franchise tag. So not only do the Ravens have their quarterback back, they should have an influx of salary-cap space, too. In both the draft and free agency, they can focus on adding another wide receiver, a cornerback and offensive and defensive line help.

They don’t have to worry about the identity of their quarterback. They’ve been in that wilderness before and have no interest in going back. That’s why the only thing that made sense was what happened Thursday — the Ravens and Jackson agreeing to a deal, and both sides smiling and moving forward together.

(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)