The news that’s on everybody’s mind is the fact that Lamar Jackson said today on Twitter that he demanded a trade nearly a month ago.
That Jackson waited until 25 days later to say that he had made a trade request is unusual insofar as nobody in his cam or the Ravens camp had mentioned anything about a trade request until now.
It’s just the latest in a saga that has seen both the Ravens and Lamar Jackson box themselves into corners they can’t easily escape from.
For Lamar Jackson, serving as his own agent seems to have proven detrimental to his career. I doubt an agent would have told him to discuss a trade request nearly a month after he alleges to have made it. An agent certainly would have been able to generate some sort of interest for him in the free agent market. And it would have saved this debacle from happening.
The Ravens, for their part, have said they want Lamar Jackson to be their quarterback. But they also want to pay him fair market value and not in the neighborhood of the 5-year, $250 million fully guaranteed deal that Jackson is alleged to be seeking. But, if Jackson is to be believed, it also means that they put the non-exclusive franchise tag on Jackson after he requested a trade. But given the fact that the Ravens have traded other players that have requested a trade without incident, it seems as if there is some odditiy in Jackson pointing out that alleged request and the Ravens insisting they want to keep Lamar.
Nobody looks good here. But somebody is going to have to break here.
The only way out and for everybody to save face is for Jackson to sign an offer sheet with another team and for the Ravens to not match that offer sheet. Then they can say they tried to keep their quarterback and still got first-round picks in the process.
But the Ravens can’t sign their quarterback to the contract he is demanding without losing face. And they can’t trade Jackson voluntarily without an absolute megadeal offer.
And Jackson can’t sign a contract below what he perceives to be “fair” value with the Ravens. After demanding a trade, it would be hard for him to sign any contract at all with the club that drafted him.
I wrote at the beginning of the month that the Ravens needed to let Lamar go. And I stand by that. But right now, for the Ravens and Jackson, there is no way out of the situation they have put themselves in. It’s a high stakes game of chicken, and somebody will need to be blink before either say can move forward.https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2023/03/GettyImages-1408327607-e1679933433403.jpg?resize=560,316