Opinion: Ravens QB Lamar Jackson deserves another record with his next contract

Each week it seems that Lamar Jackson finds a way to set a record.

Last weekend, the 24-year-old Baltimore Ravens star became the youngest quarterback to notch 35 career victories, speeding past the pace of Dan Marino.

Six days before that, he led the rally from a 16-point deficit and in breaking the franchise’s mark with 442 passing yards became the first player in NFL history to throw for 400 yards and 4 TDs … while completing more than 85% of his passes.

Just pay the man.

One of these weeks, perhaps Jackson will a record with a new contract.

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He surely deserves it. As the Ravens (5-1) head into Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals with a five-game winning streak, Jackson has accounted for 82.2% of his team’s yards – Baltimore ranks fourth in the NFL for total yards – with his arms and legs. He leads the team with 392 rushing yards and has passed for 1,686.

Sure, we’ve seen the dual threat ever since Jackson emerged as the franchise’s future, but this season the circumstances have done even more to underscore the value of the man still playing on his rookie contract.

Remember the rash of injuries that wiped out the Ravens running back room before the season started? Well, six weeks later the Ravens rushing attack ranks fourth.

His receiving corps, which will be without injured starter Sammy Watkins (hamstring) on Sunday and is just getting first-round rookie Rashod Bateman into the mix, has yet to hit a smooth stride.

His offensive line is without its anchor, left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who season ended with a fractured ankle that will require surgery.

In short, Jackson is doing more with less. It’s like the Ravens, who play at a stadium that some affectionately dub “The Big ATM,” are drawing on overdraft from The Bank of Lamar.

The NFL’s system with its rookie pool (thanks, Jamarcus Russell) allows for Jackson to stand (and throw and bolt from the pocket) as the biggest bargain in sports. He will earn a base salary of $1.771 million for this season, his fourth in the NFL.

Jackson, whose original 4-year contract is worth $9.5 million, won’t become a free agent until 2023, but at least next year he’s due to earn $23 million because the team exercised its fifth-year option.

Of course, that fifth-year option belongs to the team and in this case it equates to some hellacious leverage.

Jackson’s leverage is with his play. But that has yet to result in the type of deal that Buffalo struck with its franchise quarterback, Josh Allen, who was picked the same draft in 2018 as Jackson (32nd overall) and now already has a 6-year, $258 million extension that included a record $150 million guaranteed.

Given the extra time it has taken, not to mention performance, Jackson’s next deal needs to break a record, too. That would be fair enough.

Maybe Jackson can increase his bargaining position by leading the Ravens a Super Bowl crown. That happened few years ago when Jackson’s predecessor, Joe Flacco, landed what was then a record 6-year, $120.6 million contract.

But Super Bowl or not, Jackson’s worth is well-established when considering other recent QB deals signed by Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott and Allen, all of which top $40 million per year.

Prescott’s contract with the Cowboys (4 years, $160 million with $126 million guaranteed) is striking in that it came in March as he was coming off the gruesome ankle injury that ended his 2020 campaign. When Prescott was injured, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones assured him that the physical setback would not prevent them from the megadeal. He lived up his word.

Yet that’s not necessarily the norm. The risk of injury in football is inherit. Jackson is living with that risk, even with the fifth-year payout for 2022. And we’ll see whether the injury setback suffered by Baker Mayfield (torn labrum, fractured humerus bone in his left, non-throwing shoulder) will complicate the talks with the Browns for a new contract.

Another complication with Jackson involves his representation. He serves as his own agent.

When Jackson came out Louisville, it worked. He reasoned that with the contracts slotted for rookies, he was better off pocketing the typical 3% agent fee for himself, with his mother, Felicia Jones, listed as his agent, and an attorney enlisted to review the fine print.

Yet now the stakes are so much higher with the next long-term contract to conceivably cover his prime years for staggering numbers that might be worth at least 15 times the value of that rookie deal.

It’s fair to wonder whether Jackson would already have an Allen-like deal if he had an agent who could engage actively with the Ravens, even during the season, to hammer out a new deal. Jackson has publicly expressed that he’s not worried about his new contract, but it’s unclear whether he will dive deep into such a serious contract issue during the season.

Regardless, the Ravens, led by team owner Steve Bisciotti, should be resolved not to let this linger for much longer. Which usually means making the offer that won’t be refused.

On the field, Jackson has been a major game-changer by proving, despite the doubters, that he could not only succeed but become one of the league’s elite quarterbacks as a multi-dimensional threat who could indeed flourish as a pocket passer when needed.

Now he’s positioned as a game-changer with the business model as fewer than two dozen players in the NFL serve as their own agent. Jackson is surely representing himself in more ways than one – with the contract talks and with his performance.

It should all add up to another record.

Life on the other side

While Lions quarterback Jared Goff admitted that he was left with “sour taste” because of the way the trade from the L.A. Rams went down in January, it has been nothing but sweet for Matthew Stafford.

It’s no wonder that Stafford was so complimentary of the Lions this week. The Rams are 5-1. Stafford has thrown for 16 TDs, most ever after six games for a quarterback with a new team.

And his old team comes to SoFi Stadium on Sunday at 0-6.

Stafford maintained that he hasn’t spent much time thinking about the various narratives attached to how the trade transpired or affected his NFL fortunes.

"I’m just kind of locked in on what we’re doing here," he said, "and trying to do everything I can to make sure we succeed here."

He didn’t express any bitterness toward Detroit, insisting that he appreciated his time there.

In other words: He’s ecstatic to view the NFL world from a different perspective.

Quick slant

Titans running back and NFL rushing leader Derrick Henry will aim for his sixth consecutive 100-yard game when the Chiefs visit. No matter, it seems, that he’s coming off a short week after Tennessee’s big win against Buffalo on Monday night. In eight-such games since 2018, Henry is averaging an NFL-best 107.9 rushing yards per game (minimum 2 games) with 11 TDs when coming off a short week.