Lamar Jackson will be the Ravens’ quarterback for the long term after he and the team agreed to a five-year contract extension, the team announced Thursday.
Terms of the deal were not immediately announced.
Though general manager Eric DeCosta had said an extension was his all-consuming goal, there had been little hint of progress in negotiations, which stalled for more than a year as Jackson, who represents himself, sought a deal that would make him one of the highest paid players in NFL history.
The Ravens were prepared for a murky and perhaps painful offseason, with Jackson’s future in Baltimore uncertain and difficult roster cuts on the table because of a $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag the quarterback received March 7. Jackson tweeted before the NFL owners meetings last month that he requested to be traded March 2 because the team “has not been interested in meeting my value.” Fans braced to say farewell to an athlete expected to be the next great Baltimore star in a lineage featuring names such as Lewis, Ripken, Robinson and Unitas.
Instead, a difficult negotiation ended abruptly, and the Ravens got what DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh said they wanted all along — a clear runway to build around Jackson’s dazzling talents as a runner and passer. Though the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player has not finished either of the last two seasons because of injuries, he’s 45-16 as the Ravens’ starter, and they have made the playoffs in four of his five seasons.
At their season-ending news conference in January, DeCosta and Harbaugh acknowledged the complexity of ongoing negotiations with Jackson but said they were determined to build the franchise’s future around him.
“Everything we’ve done in terms of building our offense and building our team, how we think in terms of [bringing in] people and putting people around him is based on this incredible young man, his talent, his ability and his competitiveness,” Harbaugh said. “I’ll have my fingers crossed, and my toes crossed, and I’ll be saying prayers. I have every faith that it’s going to get done, and we have the best people in the world doing it. Eric DeCosta, there’s nobody better. Eric wants him here, I want him here, [Ravens owner] Steve [Bisciotti] wants him here, and Lamar wants to be here. So, it’s going to work out.”
Though the extension will not give the Ravens room to spend exuberantly, it will give them flexibility.
“Any deal with Lamar is going to affect the salary cap, whether we get a long-term deal done or we do an exclusive franchise [tag] or the traditional franchise [tag], it’s going to affect the cap,” DeCosta said in January. “Those are big, big numbers. We’re fortunate I think that we have a better salary cap [situation] than most. We have a lot more room than most teams do, which was by design three or four years ago.”
Teammates have been clear about what they want.
“You can’t let a guy like him go,” veteran defensive end Calais Campbell said. “I know it’s football and there’s always some new exciting toy, a new exciting kid that has potential to go out there and be great, but this is a for sure, a known. You know Lamar Jackson is an incredible player. I think it’s in the best interest of the Ravens organization to give him a long-term contract and make him our guy.”
Tight end Mark Andrews joked at the Pro Bowl that he would donate his paycheck to keep Jackson in town.
The one key party who said little was Jackson, who has not spoken to reporters since the Friday before he suffered a season-ending knee injury on the first weekend of December. The Ravens made the playoffs and pushed the Cincinnati Bengals to the limit in the wild-card round with Tyler Huntley at quarterback. But the uncertainty around Jackson’s next step loomed over every game he did not play.
He last addressed his contract situation in September, when he and the Ravens did not reach an extension agreement before the season opener.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked if a deal was close. “I don’t know.”
Now that the uncertainty is past, questions will turn to football matters such as Jackson’s fit with new offensive coordinator Todd Monken and the Ravens’ Super Bowl prospects for 2023.
This story will be updated.
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