After an impasse in contract talks this offseason, star quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens reached an agreement in principle on a five-year contract extension Thursday, Jackson announced. Video posted on the team’s Twitter account,
“The past few months, there’s been a lot of ‘he said, she said’, a lot of nail biting, a lot of head scratching going on,” Jackson, 26, said before announcing that he would “light up”. The home stadium of the Ravens for the next five years.
The deal is valued at $260 million, according to a person with knowledge of the terms of the deal, who requested anonymity because the team did not announce financial details.
Jackson won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2019 and enters the 2022 NFL season with one year remaining on his rookie contract. Uncertainty hung over Jackson’s future in Baltimore as he and the team were unable to agree on terms for an extension, and contract talks were put on hold until the off-season. In March, still unable to agree to terms with Jackson, the team granted him the non-exclusive franchise tag, which is worth approximately $32 million annually, and allowed him to negotiate with other teams.
jackson said on twitter Last month he requested a trade in early March because the Ravens “were not interested in meeting my value.”
Other quarterbacks around the league signed new deals or found new teams via trade, including Jalen Hurts, who agreed to a contract extension with the Philadelphia Eagles last week, and Aaron Rodgers, who this week He moved from Green Bay to the Jets in the early 2000s. Jackson’s situation with the Ravens seemed locked in an impasse — until the team’s announcement on Thursday, hours before the start of the NFL draft. Jackson’s average annual earnings are now the highest in the league, edging out Hurts, whose five-year deal is worth $255 million according to multiple reports.
The Ravens selected Jackson with the last pick of the first round in the 2018 NFL Draft. He took over as the team’s starting quarterback in the middle of his rookie season following an injury to Joe Flacco. He led the Ravens to the playoffs in four of the last five seasons, though a knee injury in late January ruled him out of the team’s wild-card game.
Jackson has re-imagined how the quarterback position is played at the highest level of the game, challenging opponents with both his hands and feet with more success than ever before. He is the first quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards in multiple seasons in 2019 and 2020. Last season, Jackson surpassed both 4,000 career rushing yards and 100 passing touchdowns, doing so faster than any player in league history.
Like many dual-threat quarterbacks who came before him, especially black quarterbacks, when Jackson turned pro he faced questions from NFL teams about his staying power and dismissed suggestions that he was a different player. May be better suited for the situation. A still image from the 2018 draft shows Jackson and his mother sitting in the green room late into the night, waiting for their name to be called.
However, the Ravens have embraced rather than suppressed Jackson’s unique abilities, building an offense around him that looks unlike any other in the league. In 2019, Jackson’s MVP year, the Ravens broke a 41-year-old record for most rushing yards in a season, and from 2018–21 he set a league record by rushing for at least 100 yards in 43 straight games.
Staying in Baltimore, Jackson would continue to duel with a cadre of talented young quarterbacks in the AFC that included two-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City; Joe Burrows of Cincinnati; Josh Allen of Buffalo; Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers; and Trevor Lawrence of Jacksonville. They will have at least one new offensive playmaker to throw to, receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who signed with the Ravens earlier this month after sitting out the 2022 season while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered in Los Angeles. Helped by Angeles Rams. Win Super Bowl LVI.
Even as talks between Jackson and the Ravens stalled, coach John Harbaugh stated that both sides appreciate each other, and he expects Jackson to be their starter this season. “The numbers are addressable,” Harbaugh said last month.
The Ravens figured out what numbers they needed to keep Jackson, and now they’ll have five more years with him.