Lamar Jackson had options.
The Ravens quarterback — who signed his five-year, $260 million contract extension on Thursday — said he was approached by other teams with offers prior to getting the deal done with Baltimore.
“I really didn’t care for other teams,” Jackson told reporters during a press conference — which marked his first time speaking to the media since December. “I just really wanted to get something done here. I wanted to be here.
“… Other teams are cool, but I want to be a Raven… I really wanted to get this done before anything.
“Before my time is up and [I] branch off somewhere else, I really want to finish my career here, and win a Super Bowl here.”
Following months of negotiations, Jackson and the Ravens finally agreed to a new contract just before the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft last Thursday.
The record contract includes $135 million fully guaranteed at signing with $156 million over the first 3 years and a $72.5 million signing bonus. It comes with a no-tag clause and no-trade clause.
Baltimore had placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Jackson five days after he said he requested a trade in March.
The 26-year-old, who does not have an agent and is represented by his mother, became the first quarterback to get the franchise tag from the Ravens.
“I’m very eager to be honest with you,” Jackson said about the upcoming season. “I want to throw for like 6,000 yards with the weapons we have…
“We’ve got explosive guys,” he said, mentioning the additions of rookie receiver Zay Flowers and Pro Bowl wideout Odell Beckham Jr.
Jackson said he has spoken to Flowers, who Baltimore selected with the No. 22 pick out of Boston College in the draft last week, and is excited to get to work with him down in Florida this summer.
Beckham, who’s recovering from an ACL tear he sustained in the 2022 Super Bowl, reached a one-year, $15 million deal with the Ravens last month.
Afterward, the Super Bowl-winning wideout and the former MVP quarterback partied together at Miami Beach hotspot LIV nightclub, according to a video on Twitter.
Jackson also said Beckham reached out to him prior to signing with Baltimore, and he assured the wideout that he was still a Raven.
“He reached out to me and I was like, ‘Are you thinking about coming to us? Because I’m still part of the Ravens,'” Jackson recalled. “I wasn’t saying, ‘Naw I don’t want to go there.’ That’s not my team.
“I was hyped about it… I got all these guys and then a new addition like him, with his resume, we can improve our receiver room and we can go somewhere. So I was definitely hyped about that.”