the discussion. This offseason once the dust settles and we fully
focus on the business side of the NFL calendar, and that's
Lamar Jackson. The Ravens quarterback 2019 MVP
this past year,
Miss. Some games due to illness
was banged up. Miss some games down the stretch.
Here's John Harbaugh coach of the Ravens from yesterday,
talking about the injury that Lamar Jackson, sustain, that
caused him to miss
multiple games in the all-important, stretch run of
the season.
There was not a setback. It was a bone bruise. So I think early
on right away. You just you hope for the best with a bone
bruise. Those things are really unpredictable
and there was a thought and even Lamar. I mean
the more felt like he's going to be back,
you know, first week. He thought he had a chance, second
week. He assured me, you know, he said I'll be back. I'll be
back. You know, he worked really hard to getting back
but
it just didn't really heal and it was in a spot where it come
to understand from the medical people that there's not a lot
of great deal of blood flow down there, on the ankle low,
ankle foot area. The Bruges was
and it just didn't heal
very quickly and it was painful and you could see it and he
stayed in the boot longer than we thought. He was still
limping even at the end of the season
and even in his boot, I saw him in his boot toward the end. So,
talk to him, Saturday. He said It felt great. He said, it was
really getting better and he felt really confident that he
was going to be all to get started. He said he's starting
back to work the
day after the Super Bowl
and that's his, that's his time frame to get going
after he's in be healed up by then.
That's great. Good news.
You know, he had that injury. Remember week 14. He took
the low hit legal because he was out of the pocket, his ankle
injured his ankle.
They acted like he wasn't going to miss much time. Then we saw
that day when they were practicing on Sawdust. Remember
that. And I know I know Ravens fans is not sawdust and Ravens
fancy get really pissy. Pardon me
when I
I joke that it looked like they were practicing on Sawdust,
but he did remember he was limping.
So badly, the sawdust was a great distraction from the fact
that he shouldn't have been out there on that day of practice,
limping around. And we never saw him again for the rest of
the season week. 15, 16 17 18 know, Lamar Jackson was Tyler
Huntley
and
We just assume Lamar, Jackson is going to be the quarterback
for the Ravens rest of the decade.
Lamar Jackson represents himself, and if you pay any
attention to this program, first of all, thank you. Second
of all what's wrong with you? Third of all, you know,
that my position is
that every player should have a good Agent. I don't have a cat,
having a bad agent, Advocate having a good agent and Lamar
Jackson would have been well served in 2021
by having a good agent. Because if he had a good Agent, he
would have long-term Financial Security. He'd be bound
to the Ravens. The Ravens, at least for the next two or three
years would be bound to him
for whatever reason. And I've heard different theories
as to why a contract hasn't been done. Remember the
the Sunday Splash report from Week 1, when the Ravens were
getting ready to take on the Raiders a game that the Raiders
would go on to win it. Over time.
They won that game, right? Yeah. They won. That game in
overtime was good game. Great way to start the season.
Chef D reported
that
Lamar Jackson doesn't have his contract, because he's so
immersed in football. He's all-in and football. He has no
time
for
contract. He's all about football, and I'm not a big fan
of this fortuitous myth-making. That happens in sports media.
Try to build people up. Make him seem like even more
significant bigger.
And and righteous than they are, you know, they're just men
are men and, and I try to be sensitive to that. And I also
try to appreciate the exploits of men,
but this idea that, oh, he's so focused on football. He has no
top. Well. Okay,
that's all the more reason. I have an agent.
If I'm too busy to cut my grass. I don't let my grass
grow until it's a forest. I hire somebody to cut it
if I'm too busy to to paint the house. Not that I would have
the skills to do it or survived. The
Variance. But anything that that
is on your radar screen, that is unrelated to the thing that
you spend, so much of your time, focused on your
professional exploit. Whatever it is, if you don't have time
to take care of other crap,
there are Industries out there
to do it for you. That's what I learned from. My dad. Not that
we had the discretionary income.
To pay for this to be done. And that's been a lot of things
that need to be done. Didn't get done. I mean, we were as
lower middle class as you could be,
but my dad's attitude was, and maybe it was just a genius way
to never have to do stuff because he didn't want to and
he was focused on his work,
but
His attitude was there's guys out there who feed their
families with
having the ability to do this work?
You know,
God comes to fix your washing machine. That's his job.
It supports his family with it. That's why he's there.
He's an expert at it
TV, anything like that. So
these agents are out there making a living and developing
expertise negotiating these contracts
and the good agents
do a good job of it.
And I know that, you know, there's this
there's this mindset
and it's been fueled by a handful of players.
Richard Sherman, Russell Okun are the two top voices in this
regard that all? It's one thing to say, like Bobby Wagner.
Bobby, Wagner's attitude is
I decided to do my own deal
and it works for me,
you decide for yourself. What works for you?
You got Sherman, and Okun, kind of pushing the idea on all
players, you need to do it yourselves. Well,
Why? And the idea that
you don't want to pay 1% 2%, 3%,
you can have 100% of a smaller pie or you can have 97 percent
of a big, a spy.
And when you recognize
that less than a hundred percent of a larger pie is more
pie.
I don't know how hard that is to process.
97% of a larger pi equals more pie for you.
And yeah, somebody else gets a little bit of your pie,
but you have more pie
and Lamar Jackson would be feasting on a gigantic pie.
Right now, if he had an agent last year
and I hear from time to time that the Ravens just can't get
his attention. They just get, they've tried every way they
can't because,
you know, the Ravens benefit from this because, where are
they now?
Where are they now, you know where they are now.
They're in a spot where and I'm not saying they they should do
this.
That they will do this.
But
they could,
they could look at Tyler Huntley.
And they could say,
Hey, you know.
We can't get Lamar. Jackson has attention, we couldn't get it
in 2021. No reason to think we're going to get it in 2022.
It's a last year of his contract.
We're gonna have to decide
about the potential
use of a franchise tag because this is the option year for his
contract. Drafted first round. Twenty eighteen. Nineteen.
Twenty Twenty-One. This is the option. Your next year would be
the franchise tag.
We got Tyler Huntley.
They got to keep them around.
They got to keep him around.
And I'm not saying
that Tyler Huntley should replace the large Axe and I'm
not not even I'm not even like I'm not really saying it but
I'm saying it. I'm just saying that.
They don't know what's going to happen with Lamar Jackson. They
don't know that they're ever going to be able to work out
a contract with Lamar Jackson.
They may have to tag him once
then decide to, we tagged him twice.
And then, by the time, the third tag rolls around,
you're looking at a 44 percent bump over the twenty percent
bump in the second year. It becomes unwieldy financially,
and that's when he becomes a free agent.
I think you got to keep Tyler hunting around as insurance
against the possibility that you're just not going to get it
worked out with Lamar Jackson. And that
what we saw happen to him physically last year
is a sign of things to come.
We saw that very physical style,
Fearless
courageous,
2019,
2020,
And here comes 21 and he starts to break down a little bit. Is
that going to continue? I think these are all legitimate
concerns. When you're talking about
a quarterback, who runs the ball aggressively, unless they
are going to start transitioning him to pocket
passer and not let him run the ball and not incorporate
that run based quarterback. Play into their offense the way
they do
their very realistic consideration for the Ravens.
So
it's not in the middle of the radar screen yet.
It may not be if there's no negotiations. It may just sit
there and they sit there and simmer
all off season long. Nothing happening. Every time I check
anything happened to them. Are Jackson. Nothing's happening,
Lamar Jackson.
He may stay that way all year.
They'd be wise to ensure that Tyler Huntley is around
for years to come.
Because he may ultimately be
the guy not because they think he's better.
But because he's the guy that
have a contract with,
who has an agent,
who negotiates the contracts
and provides the Ravens, the certainty and security that
they need to know that the guys going to be under contract.