really make it out and it's not
showing up on my sheet here. Great company, all hard, rock
Sportsbook. Now, I can see now that my eyes have focused
quarterbacks in NFL history
with some big number passer rating in some number of past
touchdowns. I'm glad this isn't an eye test at the DMV, but
Lamar Jackson in good company is what he has to say. The
problem is, he's yet
to get his long-term contract and
all those other guys had agents. That's one of the big
issues here and I
I personally think as we get deeper and deeper into this
more and more people are realizing that
it probably would have been a good idea for Lamar Jackson to
have an agent all along and it probably would be a good idea
for him to go get one. Now,
when I talk to people around the league the thought is he's
never going to do it because he's never going to want to
admit expressly or implicitly. That he should have had an
All along, but he needs one now more than ever and. No matter
of talk, no matter the amount of talk by me or you Peter,
anyone else?
He's not going to change his mind. That's the prevailing.
Thought, what are your prevailing thoughts after
a rollicking week of news with Lamar Jackson available? As of
next week
to talk to any team, negotiate with any team sign, an offer
sheet with the team of his choosing with the Ravens could
then match if they choose.
It's been a Nutty week,
Give me your your big-picture observation on
on what you think is going on with Lamar Jackson?
well, Mike last Friday would have been a good time to be
sort of, in
regular
PFT
live mode
because I was at the combine
and
this wasn't just agents, but it was people from teams,
basically kept making the point. This is the weak
right now,
right here.
That an agent would have more than paid off for Lamar Jackson
and the reason is
as you know, Mike at the NFL scouting combine every year.
There are, you know, every every agent is there,
in this sort of six-block radius of downtown Indianapolis,
you can't walk one block without seeing
without seeing multiple agents lat. GM's Scouts coaches.
They're all, they're
all of them are they? Well, except for some of the head
coaches now, but, but they're so they're all there.
And to think
that agent X, if he represented Lamar Jackson wouldn't run
into,
let's invent, Jets GM, Joe, Douglas and say,
Hey Joe, how you doing?
And
To walk with them for two blocks or to be in st. Elmo's.
And and run into him at the bar and say Hey
you know, I got Lamar and blah blah blah blah, blah,
and all of these conversations
that is what truly sculpts
the market for a player.
Agents, leave the scouting combine
knowing exactly
what their clients are going to be up for starting Monday
in the legal tampering
period. They know exactly
I shouldn't say, exactly. They know pretty much approximately
what the market for like Javon Hargraves agent. Drew
Rosenhaus. He pretty much knows
the approximate nature of at the market is going to be for
Javon, Hargrave one of the best players in free agent in free
agency. All of these guys who have desirable players
and probably are going to get either deals or get deep into
their deals on Monday and Tuesday, they'll all know what
they're getting.
And that is one of the big issues right now with Lamar
Jackson.
There's nobody
Who can say, Hey listen, I have Lamar's here. Let me tell you
what I'm thinking and an agent saying,
hey,
you know, here's what I think we can do and there's nobody
look, you have said this 64 times
in the last year and it is positively
correct. And what you have said essentially is
the agent is the guy
who understands what the market is and can A things
to Eric DeCosta in negotiations and Eric DeCosta can say things
back to him
that Lamar Jackson is not going to say to DeCosta in their
meeting which I heard they had somewhere in Florida recently
and Dacosta is not going to say those things
to Lamar, but Lamar has to understand
that this contract is not just as easy as saying
I want. What he Got,
there are issues that need to be discussed and Bartered, and
argued about. And Eric DeCosta doesn't want to argue with
Lamar Jackson,
because he's got to be his quarterback. He doesn't want
Lamar Jackson saying,
I hate that to Kosta and I hate the Ravens,
so the middle man gets the hatred.
How do you think the, you know, how do you do you think all of
these teams?
You know, Russell Wilson's Agent, Mark Rogers,
how do you think John Schneider in the Seahawks felt about him
at the end? Not real good. How do you think he felt about John
Schneider and Pete? Carroll
not real good but that is what this business is
Agents. Where the flak jackets,
general managers where the flak jackets they take the shrapnel
and so the player doesn't have to because it's bad for
the player to take the shrapnel.
And so I'm just saying
I don't want to do a commercial for agents
but for whatever you pay him, whatever it is, Mike 3%? What,
I don't know.
But at this point, especially after Lamar is played the last
two years after being an MVP,
and he's played the last two years, for whatever the number is
25 26 million. Ian total
in the last two years,
you know, I I doubt sincerely, Tom, Pella, Sarah made this
point this week on Rich Eisen show. I doubt sincerely that
an agent would have let him,
you know, play at least one of those years
at the rate of pay that he was making, which obviously
was Far Below the market of what an MVP quarterback should make.
This is the point that Miles Simmons, and I made yesterday
because Mi made that same comment. You don't set on
the foot on the field in year. For
forget about your five, you don't play in your for without
your second contract. And that's exactly what Eric
Burkhart said to reporters last year,
as an unnamed source and the reports started to come out.
That's what an agent does. The agent knows the reporters. He
was clearly The Source. One Palace Arrow reported that,
he's not setting foot on the field.
It wasn't Kyler Murray, it was either calamari
Eric Burkhart. Of course, it was Eric Burkhart and then we
get the single space, eight point font. Ted Kaczynski,
the Unabomber, Manifesto that Burkhart put on Twitter,
right?
If you don't have an agent, that doesn't happen. That's
part of what the agent does and Peter Peter, this is
a combination and we're getting closer to the point where
the NFL players Association is going to be in
the crosshairs for the criticism here
because between Richard Sherman,
who was the Typhoid Mary of this? Hey
Players can represent themselves and not get screwed.
And he was dead wrong because he got screwed by the 49ers.
And he, and it's one thing for a guy to say, it's just my
choice like Bobby Wagner. It's just my choice
and he did well for himself frankly,
negotiating. His own deals with the Seahawks and the with
the Rams. But when Sherman because he's got an anti agent bias
decides, he's going to wave this flag for get rid of your
agent
and guys, listen to him.
They're the ones who get screwed
and Lamar Jackson. I believe has it in his head.
I don't need to pay 3%,
I don't need to pay 2%. I don't need to pay 1% and the money
doesn't come out of your game check you got to write that
check at the end of the year so it feels like a bigger deal.
It's like paying quarterly taxes
and guys don't want to do it.
So Pennywise and pound-foolish is what that reality has been
especially for a guy like Lamar Jackson and it's a damn shame
for him because you're right
last week is the time to find out what's out there and if
there's nothing out there, Peter
If the Falcons the Panthers in the Dolphins, truly aren't
interested a good Agent. Finds a way to create interest, a my
nothing. Do me a favor here, do me a favor here, do me
a favor here and make an offer. Do me a favor here and bring
him in for a visit do me a favor and sit down with him
just let me let me
have something I can use
to try to get someone
to come out of the weeds and pursue him.
That's what a good Agent does. When you have no agent, you
have no one. To create interest when otherwise
in Jackson's case, there is none.
Mike, you know,
one of the parts of the Lamar Jackson story that I smile that
because I talked to a lot of teams at the scouting combine
and I can just tell you that the list of teams that was given
that as no interest in Lamar Jackson.
I'm not saying it's Gorgonzola
but I'm saying
there was one or two teams on that list that have some
interest in Lamar Jackson. I'm just
You when a beat writer, might ask a general manager? Do you
have any interest in Lamar Jackson?
Knowing that the general manager has a quarterback
who's the very likely starting quarterback on his team. He's
going to say, no got no interest in Lamar Jackson,
and I'm not saying that that team will end up having any
interest in them are Jackson,
but I know by my conversations
last week in Indianapolis that
All these teams that say they have no interest in Lamar Jackson
that is not necessarily the case.
That's all I'm saying, right? But if you can,
I hear you and and I'm not saying that any of those teams
will either bring them in or do anything like that but you just
made exactly the point that needs to be made if age and X
could sit down with
Scott fiderer, the GM of the Carolina Panthers for a For
with Joe Douglas
general manager, the Jets
for a drink for a coffee at the JW Marriott right,
whatever. Whatever sit down with any of those guys
then you will know exactly
if the general manager trust the agent
to keep it. Absolutely,
you know, under the table
until such point that there is a meeting
then that is what an agent does. And that is how an agent
could. To help Lamar Jackson.
Look, it doesn't get any simpler than this last year.
DeShaun Watson 20-plus civil lawsuits. Alleging, sexual
misconduct during massage therapy sessions pending
against him.
And yet still David Moolah get of athletes. First number one,
gets the Texans to be willing to trade in which they were
before. All that stuff happened. Two years ago, as of
March 17. That's the anniversary of the first lawsuit.
That stuff was still boiling.
He was able to get four teams to come to the table.
The Saints, the Panthers,
the Falcons, and the Browns Falcons have Matt Ryan,
the Falcons, alienated, Matt Ryan, the Falcons had
a restructured contract agreed to with Matt Ryan that would have
kept him in Atlanta. Last year and that blew up when they
decided to go flirt with DeShaun Watson
and the Browns had Baker Mayfield
and that blew up, when they decided to go flirt
with DeShaun Watson, my point is,
if you have an agent, the agent sets that up the agent Works,
those backchannels the agent, gets everyone to the table and
it worked to Perfection
and setting aside the whole non-exclusive franchise tag
thing in the two first round picks. Maybe there's a trade to
be
Made here. And I've been saying this for a long time as well.
Peter,
if because we don't know what Lamar Jackson really wants,
does he want to be with the Ravens or does he want to be
with someone else? We just don't know if he truly doesn't
want to be with someone else he needs to say so.
And which he could do through his agent and then the agent
sets up, a DeShaun Watson style competition for his services
and if that would ever happen,
maybe he does end up
with one team, getting desperate and doing something
that we would objectively. Is dumb like the Browns did, but
for the Browns it was the right move,
the five-year fully, guaranteed, DeShaun, Watson
contract. And, and if nothing else, Peter an agent, can help
Lamar Jackson except understand how it was that Watson. Got it,
it just didn't fall out of the sky. It took a lot of work. It
probably took some luck and
it's the planets lining up, just right? You gotta have
an agent. Help you align the planets and that's what Lamar
Jackson, refuses to understand. And I, Said this yesterday at
a certain point, he's responsible for his own life and his own
choices and his own failure to understand how
an agent would help him. And, you know, I'm at the point
where I've said all I can to try to help this guy, if he
wants to have no long-term deal, no. Financial Security
play year to year or not play at all. Because, you know what
Peter, we may get to a point where he's got thirty two point
four million as his salary for 2023 because he hasn't signed
a long-term contract and he just says I'm not playing for that
and he just doesn't play this year
if he wants to continue down this path. It's his business,
the the right to life liberty and the pursuit of Pursuit of
Happiness
includes within that implicitly
the right to screw your life up if you want to
and if he wants to do it, more power to him.
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