continues, the Ravens
quarterback, who is entering the fifth and final year of his
rookie. Contract still has not signed with the team.
He said earlier this week, the deadline is probably Friday.
Anytime you say probably that means it's not really
a deadline, it would be artificial. Anyway,
the question is, will both sides respected and get a deal done?
I doubt that a deal is going to happen.
And one of the reasons why there's two reasons one
he doesn't have an agent,
never had an agent didn't need 15 years ago.
Didn't need one. When he did a slotted rookie deal,
those deals are easy to negotiate 30. Second pick in
the draft. You negotiate that deal in five minutes
franchise quarterback. MVP in 2019 quarterback deals that are
structured differently. Complicated process, agent
needs to be talking to the front office
every day multiple times a day. Fully engaged that
Happen, when you got a guy who's getting ready for
football season, that's just the way it is
and it's not a knock on Lamar. It's a recognition of
the reality of the significance of this contract. It is
an unprecedented situation to have a player representing himself
with this kind of money at stake and when
the notion of a fully, guaranteed contract, thanks to
the cha Watson deal with the Browns signed
in March.
When that becomes something, the quarterback wants and
the team says, no way in hell.
At some point the quarterback has to say, I'm not getting
the fully guaranteed contract, my circumstances are different
than to Sean Watson's. He was in a position where the planets
lined up perfectly. I'm not in that position.
So what else are the Ravens willing to do?
See that's the question Peter
and that's where an agent would be very helpful to Lamar
Jackson. And I know the kind of bristles at this and people
think oh, you
or why are you trying to carry water for? The agents will
Look, they are the experts, they are the doctors. They are
the ones who can diagnose the situation and give the proper
advice. What are the Ravens willing to do?
And then when you take that information, you go back to
the client and say door number one,
What the Ravens are offering door number two, 23 million
this year,
with no guarantee Beyond it and no idea what's going to happen.
Here's the door. I think you should take
as somebody with experience and knowledge and wisdom, and who
isn't you? Because you're too close to it. Lamar Jackson,
somebody else needs to give him that advice and without it
Peter,
this deal is never getting done.
Hey Mike, let me ask you a question.
What is the franchise exclusive franchise number
in 2023 approximately
approximately 46?
Okay, so if your Lamar Jackson, isn't the question really?
Am I willing to play two years for 70 million?
You know. Isn't that the big question? Am I okay
with playing the next to Here's at a position where I'm going
to get hit a lot. Am I okay playing two years. 70 million
that to me is the question. If if they don't get a deal done
this here and Mike you know what, I absolutely agree with
you
in the way that just because they don't get a deal done by
opening day.
You tell me if, if Lamar Jackson, if you're Erik
Dacosta, the GM of the Ravens and
Lamar Jackson walks into your office,
one Friday afternoon in week,
6
and sits down and plops down in your chair. And you close
the door and say and and he says, Hey listen, what would happen
if we just wanted to do X?
Okay, I will guarantee you if it was agreeable to the Ravens,
they don't care what was said on Labor Day weekend
about some phony deadline.
You know, they're going to negotiate a deal. Go.
And by the time that he walks into the office
or walks into Camp. The next morning,
they will have
a 27 page contract with all the addendums, done waiting for
Lamar, Jackson the sign.
And again, I'm not saying it's going to happen. In fact,
I don't even think it's likely.
But this thing about a deadline before, the season
is silly. It's just silly. Let things settle down.
Let everything. Thing, get all cooled off and then at one
point during the season when no one's Aunt Nar up
and because nobody would be leaking this at that time,
you know, just try to get it done and if it doesn't get
done, it doesn't get done. Then again, you put it off till
the end of the season and you see what happens. But the biggest
question to me, if I'm Lamar,
is, am I willing to play?
And I'm not saying that it absolutely what happened, but
Am I willing to play two years? 70 million dollars,
am I willing to subject my body? To those kind of things
knowing that if I got some serious injury in those two
years that I might have gambled incorrectly,
rather than taking
whatever the guaranteed number would be. Now, let's say 150,
rather than getting that done right now
and having a contract that would tie me to the team,
through the end of, let's say,
They the 2027 season
at Sea. We don't know what's behind door. Number two
for Lamar Jackson, if door number one is indeed 23 million
this year, franchise tag next year and possibly franchise tag
the year after that, which would be fifty five point two
million. If the exclusive number
423 is 46, that's 124 million over three years.
That is his ultimate path to freedom because by the time you
get
To the third tag. It's a 44 percent, raise over 55 million,
which is almost 100 million for one year,
they're not going to tag him a third straight time.
That's the out, that's the Kirk Cousins path to free agency
to tags, and you're gone,
but he's got to get through three more years.
Where will he be
three years from now?
Will he still be a guy that would be
desirable on the open market to the point? That some team would
say, here's a five-year fully guaranteed contract just like
the one to Sean Watson got. That's Hell of a risk. You have
to know
what is behind door. Number two
to balance those two in to understand
the right thing to do,
how much of a guarantee
our the Ravens putting on the table. What kind of cash flow
is there in year One? What kind of cash flow is there through
the first three years? That's one of the standards that
experienced agents look at and
this is not a knock on Lamar Jackson or his mother
if I was 25 26 years old and my
My mother was trying to help me negotiate with a multi-billion
dollar organization. A contract, like this, we
wouldn't know what the hell to do.
I wouldn't know what questions to ask. I wouldn't even begin
to formulate a responsible question at that age.
Why? Because I'm focused on playing football.
That's what's so ludicrous about what's currently happening.
How in the world is Lamar Jackson carving out any time to
meaningfully understand or learn about or appreciate
these. And suppose he's doing it. Once the Ravens, do it all
the time
and Peter, let me say this too,
there's no indication that the Ravens of the problem here.
They've signed a lot of guys in recent years. Now, I know they
learned a lesson the very hard way but Joe Flacco, a decade
ago but this isn't all. It's just the Ravens being
the Ravens. I mean, if it was Washington,
then maybe we'd say,
okay, here we go. Again, with Dan Snyder and Company,
but there isn't a sense of dysfunction, permeating the Ravens,
there's nothing at this point to
Suggest the Ravens of the reason this is bogged down.
I think this is bogged down
because Lamar Jackson
refuses to have an agent and Peter, I hope to God
that the reason is not
the reason that so many other players have decided to go
agent free.
They resent paying
1% 2% 3%, whatever percent
to an agent because yet again and I know people get
triggered for some reason when I say this but it's true
you can have 100%
of a pie that's this big. We can have 97 percent
of a pie that's this big.
You do the math.
Don't worry about the one, two or three percent. You're
getting more pie at the end of the day.
You know, Mike
I think that's right. And I think that one of the problems
and I'm just trying to read tea leaves, I don't know.
And I don't think we really know the issue
but if your Lamar Jackson and you're trying to negotiate
directly with a team,
you know, you're obviously going to be getting advice
either from the nflpa or from your mom, or from somebody.
Else who basically, you know, is
he has no buffer,
just exactly as you say,
no one to tell him. Hey look, if you really want to get this
done, stop asking for a fully guaranteed contract. Steve
Bisciotti would sell the franchise before he would give
you that.
And if you want to challenge this
and be on your the last year of your contract,
for the next three years as you play,
as you so desperately.
Seek your freedom.
That's fine, do that but know that
there is no alternative
that says that you're going to get a fully guaranteed contract
at least here in Baltimore and might I wrote this the other
day.
All right and I think this is an important
factoid when discussing Lamar Jackson's contract
and that is that there have been four other
big contract signed by quarterbacks
this offseason.
Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr, Kyler Murray,
Russell Wilson,
those four contracts, the fully guaranteed portion
of those four contracts
comes out to 47 percent
of what the total value
of those contracts is
and we can debate.
What is a full guarantee? What's an injury, whatever. But
the point is
that the DeShaun Watson contract Act is clearly
an outlier
in these five, big quarterback contract signed in the out in
the offseason. So under almost any circumstances
if you really want to get a deal done
if indeed. And I don't know that he is
asking for a fully guaranteed car. I don't know what he's
asking for,
but if that is on the table,
you're just not going to get a deal done. So,
you know, and that's why to me. The longer this goes the more
I figure that
look the Ravens want to make a deal
you know. And it's easy to say they want to make a deal but
they don't want this thing hanging over their head like
a Sword of Damocles. They want to get a deal done
but they're not going to do it with the kind of guaranteed
money, you know, 80 or 90 percent guaranteed, even
that that if Lamar Jackson, is asking for it,
it's just not going to get done.
Well, one reason I'd want to get it done. If I was
the Ravens last year, Lamar Jackson wasn't thinking about
the contract at all this year, he clearly is. How much is he
thinking about staying healthy? Missed the final four games
last season with an ankle injury. Is he more conscious of
it? Will he play differently until he gets the contract?
That's the reason to have a week. 1 deadline,
I'm not going out on the football field until I get my long-term
security, both against injury, and, as a relates to what
I otherwise would be getting if I keep playing under this deal
Peter, you made a great.
Point. And this is a thread that I think
we need to just tug on
a little bit.
The NFL players Association has openly advocated for more
fully guaranteed contracts. It was an essay posted by JC
Treader. The union president, after the DeShaun Watson
contract putting the onus on agents to push
for more fully guaranteed deals. We talked about this
last week, they don't get a greater percentage. If it's
fully guaranteed, they'd rather have total dollars available
especially in a franchise quarterback.
Contract where rarely if ever does the guy get cut. But to
the extent that that Lamar Jackson is being advised by
the union, if that's what's happening and I don't think
that's an unreasonable supposition to make. What if
the union is pushing him and pushing him
and pushing him to demand a fully guaranteed contract, not
because it's in his best interest to do it, but because
this is in furtherance of the Union's, agenda to swing
the pendulum toward
Guaranteed deals as we've seen, develop in other sports, which
do not make full guarantees part of their cba's, basketball
and baseball that's just kind of the way it's developed.
Wouldn't the union love to have fully guaranteed contracts for
all players. So this could be a situation
where somebody who isn't really thinking of Lamar Jackson's,
best interests is pushing him to get a fully, guaranteed
contract, for other reasons, altogether than the
Best possible outcome for Lamar Jackson, that's an important
point to keep in mind, if he is getting his advice from the NFL
players Association.
Yeah. And like I said, Mike, I don't know where he's getting
his advice. So, you know, I'm just like
people who are watching this show, I
we don't know, they don't know, I don't know. But you just get
a feeling that if Lamar Jackson,
you know, really wants to get a deal done
right now. He needs. Needs to start thinking about
other ways to do a contract other than
one with either full
or the vast majority of fully or the vast majority of it
being guaranteed,
simple proposition. Number one, what is the best number? The
Ravens will put on the table. Number 2, do I take it? Do
I not take it? Do I go Joe Flacco and bet on myself
or do I take the money
and call it a day and recognize
it is a big pile of cash.
I am depositing into my coffers
for now and for years
to come and we always love it. When a guy bets on himself. We
love it. We love it because it's not our money. Yeah, it's
great. It's exciting.
Somebody's making a big bet. Who? How's it going to go
up? That's a shame. Didn't work out? Well,
no, skin off my nose.
It's your bet that lost not mine.
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