Details Have Emerged On The Contract Offers Lamar Jackson Has Rejected And It's Clear He Wants One Thing
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There's plenty that can and has been said over the past few months about the Lamar contract situation. The vast majority of those things were based on pure speculation. The only thing we knew for sure was that there was no deal in place. Now that the negotiating window has closed, all the deets are starting to emerge...
It's clear and obvious that Lamar is dead set on one aspect of this contract: guarantees. That was predictable as soon as the Browns gave DeShaun Watson that albatross of a contract. Now... I think plenty of people were able to be reasonable about the fact that that contract is a bad one and you can count Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti as one of those people.
And Kyler and Russ taking less than fully guaranteed hardly helped Lamar's case. But that doesn't mean Lamar isn't justified in asking for fully guaranteed. That's his right. That's his prerogative. Given what he's accomplished and what I'm watching in the 2nd half of this Jets opener, it's worth considering whether it should have been Lamar to have been that first guy to get a fully guaranteed deal. Just because the Browns did what they did and it was dumb does not mean it would be dumb to do the same with Lamar. It's hardly an apples to apples situation.
The one thing that's most interesting to me is that this information was leaked in the first place. I've got my nose in some circles here in Baltimore. Maybe a brag, but it's the truth. These negotiations have been the best kept secret in town. There's been no info leaked by either side as they've come to the table. I've had plenty of inklings as to how close the two sides were (or more accurately, were not) based on hearsay and some behind-the-scenes stories about Lamar's relationship with the team, but there was really no true information out there to be had. Now suddenly the NFLPA is leaking info? Feels weird and some suspect that Lamar is not going to be happy that it was.
We're still in the early chapters of this saga. Maybe the Ravens give him what he wants, maybe they won't. I just hope that this season goes well enough for the Ravens to have no choice.