Lamar Jackson

@packerboi posted:

This is no coincidence that the NFL is sending a clear message to him.

Mess...

NFL teams were notified by the league via memo today a person named Ken Francis “may be contacting Clubs … to enter into negotiations with or concerning Lamar Jackson.” Teams are prohibited from negotiating with Francis, who is not an NFLPA certified agent.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 23, 2023

Here’s the full memo from the NFL Management Council warning teams not to negotiate with a man named Ken Francis about Lamar Jackson.

“Violation of this rule may result in disapproval of any Offer Sheet or resulting. Player Contract entered into by Mr. Jackson and the new Club.” pic.twitter.com/v0ibYCfl2J

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 23, 2023

Stop Lying that man never tried to negotiate for me 🤣🤣 https://t.co/DIMXtxOAnR

— Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) March 23, 2023

So to recap: The NFL told teams today they are prohibited from negotiating with a Florida man named Ken Francis, whom Lamar Jackson says never tried to negotiate for him, but is his business partner on a forthcoming home fitness invention with a commercial starring Lamar.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 23, 2023

Behind a paywall from The Athletic:

Hear that? Yes, and no.

A deafening silence surrounds the future of one of the best young NFL quarterbacks. But out of that silence blares a message that’s loud and clear. We’re one week into free agency, and it has been two weeks since the Baltimore Ravens used the franchise tag on Lamar Jackson to retain his rights.

The use of the non-exclusive tag basically signaled that the Ravens are open for business. Yet no one is burning up the phone lines. No team is clamoring for the services of a generational talent who, although just 26, has already garnered a rare unanimous MVP selection, 10 NFL records and 13 other team records. ll Jackson has done since taking over as Baltimore’s starter halfway through his rookie season in 2018 is put the Ravens on his back and make them relevant. So, in a league starved for elite quarterback play, the lack of even a few exploratory conversations for a player of Jackson’s caliber is unfathomable.

The owners for all of the quarterback-needy teams were quick to ensure denials of interest in Jackson were leaked shortly after the news of his franchise tag designation broke. They have spoken, and quite authoritatively. Their message is clear. In pro football, winning trumps all. Teams will turn a blind eye to the gravest of transgressions.

They’ll show mercy for any disgraced player if he has the redeeming quality of increasing a team’s chances of winning the Lombardi Trophy. But here, we’re receiving another reminder that the only thing more important to owners than winning is control. That’s why rather than whipping out the checkbook and rewarding Jackson for almost single-handedly making Baltimore a contender, the Ravens suddenly prefer frugality.

It’s why rather than capitalizing on Baltimore’s miscalculation and attempting to pry away such a transformational player, other owners are content to sit this one out. There will be no more resetting of the quarterback market with staggering, long-term, fully guaranteed contracts. Not on their watch. That’s the hard stance being taken.

Owners were upset when the Cleveland Browns awarded the controversial Deshaun Watson a record $230 million guaranteed contract (the first of its kind) to outbid the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers. And they desperately want to avoid a repeat. After Watson’s signing, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti publicly called the deal bad for business because it would “make negotiations harder with others.”

Sorry, he's not a generational talent.  His style has a short shelf life and he shrinks when the spotlight is brightest.

Silent killer lives.

Of course Lamar becoming a "business partner" with Florida Man may have been Florida Man's  "foot in the door" for a hair-brained attempt at a scam. It would be on-brand.

@packerboi posted:

This is no coincidence that the NFL is sending a clear message to him.

....That’s why rather than whipping out the checkbook and rewarding Jackson for almost single-handedly making Baltimore a contender, the Ravens suddenly prefer frugality.

Quite the battle !

NFLPA and owners are using Lamar as a pawn for their proxy war and he wasn't clever enough to realize that neither had his self- interest as their # 1 goal

But I do push back on the bolded comment about "frugality"
They offered the dude $133M guaranteed, so he's hardly an aggrieved party here. He's a running QB and a massive risk for a fully gtd deal

I understand why they want to frame it that way, but it just rings hollow.

Lamar already lost a ton of cash and goodwill, trying to pinch some pennies that he doesn't even need. He's clearly in over his head, but he's also the one who wanted to go swimming in the deep end. Oops

@RochNyFan posted:

Sorry, he's not a generational talent.  His style has a short shelf life and he shrinks when the spotlight is brightest.

That’s part of it, yes. A much bigger part is the NFL wants no part of guaranteed contracts. At least not mega ones like Watson was handed or Jackson is seeking. They aren’t MLB and never will be. Another reason they are renewing Yes boy Roger Goodells  contract. He’s perfect. He’ll do exactly what these billionaires want and won’t rock the boat.

I agree that Watson's contract is indeed bad for business, and factors into Jackson's situation.
I suspect there has to be some collusion among the owners to 'correct the market' after Watson's deal blew everybody out of the water, and it may also factor into a decision on whether to make a deal for him, but I still think the biggest factor is QBs that can't consistently pass to score aren't going to break the bank.
The timing is terrible for megadeals for QBs, and there aren't many teams that are willing to give up 2 1st round picks like there were last year.
Teams aren't willing to give that much up for Rodgers, who is/was/still may be a true generational talent, as opposed to Jackson, who is a terrific RB.

Timmy! you are so right.  Teams are not going to spend huge amounts of draft capital on a guy who is a crazy good runner but is not a guy who is going to win you big games with his arm.  If you want to sell jerseys he is your guy but I don't think he will take the next step until he takes the Steve Young approach of using your legs when you have to and pass first and run later.

As for the owners I don't think there is any doubt in the world they are colluding to reset the QB market.  They have done it before and they will keep doing it when it suits them.  I read an article the other day that the players union is going to start pushing even harder for guaranteed contracts but we all know the owners of teams don't want that under any circumstances.

If they want guaranteed contracts fine. But instead of 5 years and 230 mil make it 3 years and a hundred mil. Guarantee the money but you aint gettin 46 mil a year for 5 years. It's all a contest with these guys. They want the biggest contract , the most bling at the club, the biggest posse ect. It's all a competition to them. Then they wonder when they go out for a good time they are targeted because they have $30 ,000 worth of jewelry on them. So now they carry a Glock and shoot themselves dancing like Plexico

Jackson and the affect from the Watson contract.

Really shows how much of a tight group the owners are. Instead of the Browns ownership/FO being ostracized, the teams are penalizing Jackson.

Penalizing Jackson because he wants too much money for not playing complete seasons?

@Packiderm posted:

If they want guaranteed contracts fine. But instead of 5 years and 230 mil make it 3 years and a hundred mil. Guarantee the money but you aint gettin 46 mil a year for 5 years. It's all a contest with these guys. They want the biggest contract , the most bling at the club, the biggest posse ect. It's all a competition to them. Then they wonder when they go out for a good time they are targeted because they have $30 ,000 worth of jewelry on them. So now they carry a Glock and shoot themselves dancing like Plexico

I think the bigger problem with this is that Jackson doesn't have an agent. If he did, all these clubs would be able to discreetly talk to the agent and work through this. Instead, they have to work through Lamar and that complicates things.

The agent would be able to talk some sense into him too. I'm guessing Jackson just wanted to keep it simple and looked at the Watson contract and said effectively - "just give me that - maybe with a few bucks a year more" and is mad they didn't just match it. He would get 250 million and save paying the 5% commission.

If an agent was involved, they could get him close to the same point without making it look like the money is all guaranteed (the clubs care more about this perception than the actual money - many of the owners are worth tens of billions and spend more than this on their yachts). Maybe on paper the contract ends up being 6 years and 300 million, but you give him 150 million in guarantees up front and add a bunch of likely to be earned incentives or well-timed roster bonuses. It sounds like the Ravens were close to that- guaranteeing close to 140 million.

@GBFanForLife posted:

Penalizing Jackson because he wants too much money for not playing complete seasons?

Since no one is talking to him, no one knows what he wants or would accept.

Baltimore tried to negotiate with him. Why would any team try to sign him and give up 2 1st round picks? He isn't that good of a QB and has been injured the last 2 years.

LJ asks for a trade...shocking...

Ya, lots of luck with that. His demands aren't what teams are going to pay. If he hasn't figured that out yet, I don't know what will.

How does a player like this not have an agent? And I agree, he isn't worth close to what he's asking. He had one good year and it been downhill the last 2 seasons. I still say the guy is the 2nd coming of RG3 and when he has to rely on his passing skills he's in trouble. The Ravens know better than anybody what he's worth.

But Jackson's passing and durability have come under scrutiny. Over the past two seasons, Jackson has totaled 33 touchdown passes and 20 interceptions and has missed 11 games, including a playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last season.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story...quested-trade-ravens

Lamar Jackson said Monday that he has requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens as the team "has not been interested in meeting my value" in contract talks.

The guy needs help.

Lamar Jackson: “I need some offensive weapons like Mahomes!”

Ravens: pic.twitter.com/oZL6oCRSDg

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) March 27, 2023

WTF?

He should go the Cousins route and play under the franchise tag until the Ravens finally set him free. Difference is Cousins never got injured and Jackson is trending toward injury prone. Maybe follow the Cousins plan and be a little bit smarter about when and how often you use your legs.

Heard on the radidio today... forget who said it.

Paraphrasing, Jackson should sign the tag and then have a hammy in camp. Ravens are on the hook for $2mm/week when the season starts.

As much trouble as he's having getting any team to bid on him now, pulling something like that would hurt his value even more.

Would be a fantastic FU to the Ravens though!

What he should do is get an agent.

He thinks he's worth Deshaun Watson money. Watson isn't worth the money he's getting paid and on top of that no team is giving up 1st round picks for him.  He can sign the tag or find another career.

Hardly any QB is worth whatever the next contract is going to be. It doesn't matter if he is better than Watson or Wilson or whoever. He's next and next always gets something that is record breaking or close to it.

Watson last year was suspended and when he came back was worse than Lamar Jackson

1. HA! https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/...-instead-of-packers/
2. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/...tead-of-the-packers/

Douglas says he doesn't want to deal in bad faith but the truth is nobody wants to pay $50 mil long term for a QB like Jackson. A couple more years of getting knocked around and he has to become a pocket passer.

And he is not a good pocket passer. Running is 90% of his game, and that never ages well.

https://www.sbnation.com/2022/...new-england-patriots

He can be a pocket passer sometimes but once he loses the threat of the run defenses will play him much differently. When he has to be exclusively a pocket passer is when a team has to be weary of paying him $50 mil. The guy threw 33 TDs and 20 Ints combined the last two seasons. That's not going to scare anybody.

@PackerPatrick posted:

1. HA! https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/...-instead-of-packers/
2. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/...tead-of-the-packers/

That first article was WAY better than the second.

Interview snippets with Randy Mueller, former NFL GM

Lamar is just flailing around and seems clueless about how these QB deals actually play out

We don’t know exactly what Jackson is asking for, but if it is a massive fully guaranteed deal, why do you think that could be the wrong approach?

“He’d have to play his contract out all the way to being an unrestricted free agent (which would mean playing on the franchise tag this season and next season). He does that, he has his rights and then maybe it’s more possible. But it’s very hard for these guys to ever become free. That’s the part that I’d love to have a conversation with Lamar about because, really, all of these quarterbacks who sign big deals, they’re really guaranteed. You’re not going anywhere. Your contract’s gonna get redone in two years and that’s just gonna plop some more guaranteed money on top of what you already got. So the fact that you want a full guarantee really doesn’t serve the purpose of what’s best for you. … These quarterback deals for teams are nothing but an invite for teams to kick the can every time they need salary-cap space, and that just adds more guarantees for you. You’re gonna earn every penny of that until maybe the very end.”

What it means: The other big-named QB in Jackson’s class, Josh Allen, signed a six-year, $258 million contract extension with Buffalo in 2021 and $150 million of it was guaranteed. Allen’s deal was restructured last month to convert $26.4 million of his 2023 salary into a signing bonus — which is also guaranteed money — while creating $21.1 million in cap space. Kansas City has done similar contract restructuring with Patrick Mahomes.

So, if Jackson were to sign a non-fully guaranteed contract, he’d still make somewhere in the range of $150 million guaranteed at the initial signing with the chance to make even more guaranteed money down the line by readjusting his contract.

Since entering the NFL in 2018, Allen has made $85 million compared with Jackson’s $32.7 million.

Again, we don’t know what Jackson is exactly asking for, but if he refuses to accept a non-fully guaranteed deal, he’ll likely continue missing out on big paydays while Allen and the star quarterbacks who entered the league after them — Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts, all of whom are eligible for extensions this year — cash in.

Mar got his bag....5 year deal agreed upon. Details forthcoming.

@packerboi posted:

This is no coincidence that the NFL is sending a clear message to him.

Mess...

NFL teams were notified by the league via memo today a person named Ken Francis “may be contacting Clubs … to enter into negotiations with or concerning Lamar Jackson.” Teams are prohibited from negotiating with Francis, who is not an NFLPA certified agent.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 23, 2023

Here’s the full memo from the NFL Management Council warning teams not to negotiate with a man named Ken Francis about Lamar Jackson.

“Violation of this rule may result in disapproval of any Offer Sheet or resulting. Player Contract entered into by Mr. Jackson and the new Club.” pic.twitter.com/v0ibYCfl2J

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 23, 2023

Stop Lying that man never tried to negotiate for me 🤣🤣 https://t.co/DIMXtxOAnR

— Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) March 23, 2023

So to recap: The NFL told teams today they are prohibited from negotiating with a Florida man named Ken Francis, whom Lamar Jackson says never tried to negotiate for him, but is his business partner on a forthcoming home fitness invention with a commercial starring Lamar.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 23, 2023

Behind a paywall from The Athletic:

Hear that? Yes, and no.

A deafening silence surrounds the future of one of the best young NFL quarterbacks. But out of that silence blares a message that’s loud and clear. We’re one week into free agency, and it has been two weeks since the Baltimore Ravens used the franchise tag on Lamar Jackson to retain his rights.

The use of the non-exclusive tag basically signaled that the Ravens are open for business. Yet no one is burning up the phone lines. No team is clamoring for the services of a generational talent who, although just 26, has already garnered a rare unanimous MVP selection, 10 NFL records and 13 other team records. ll Jackson has done since taking over as Baltimore’s starter halfway through his rookie season in 2018 is put the Ravens on his back and make them relevant. So, in a league starved for elite quarterback play, the lack of even a few exploratory conversations for a player of Jackson’s caliber is unfathomable.

The owners for all of the quarterback-needy teams were quick to ensure denials of interest in Jackson were leaked shortly after the news of his franchise tag designation broke. They have spoken, and quite authoritatively. Their message is clear. In pro football, winning trumps all. Teams will turn a blind eye to the gravest of transgressions.

They’ll show mercy for any disgraced player if he has the redeeming quality of increasing a team’s chances of winning the Lombardi Trophy. But here, we’re receiving another reminder that the only thing more important to owners than winning is control. That’s why rather than whipping out the checkbook and rewarding Jackson for almost single-handedly making Baltimore a contender, the Ravens suddenly prefer frugality.

It’s why rather than capitalizing on Baltimore’s miscalculation and attempting to pry away such a transformational player, other owners are content to sit this one out. There will be no more resetting of the quarterback market with staggering, long-term, fully guaranteed contracts. Not on their watch. That’s the hard stance being taken.

Owners were upset when the Cleveland Browns awarded the controversial Deshaun Watson a record $230 million guaranteed contract (the first of its kind) to outbid the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers. And they desperately want to avoid a repeat. After Watson’s signing, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti publicly called the deal bad for business because it would “make negotiations harder with others.”

Interesting, thanks for sharing.  Looks like the market for QB's has finally hit the ceiling.

@Chongo posted:

Mar

A lago cash

@GBFanForLife posted:

He thinks he's worth Deshaun Watson money. Watson isn't worth the money he's getting paid and on top of that no team is giving up 1st round picks for him.  He can sign the tag or find another career.

Exactly.  The Browns are hardly the team to follow in terms of free agent strategy.  Or any strategy.

The Browns and strategy probably shouldn't even be used in the same sentence.

It makes a nice oxymoron.