Why Lamar Jackson is on the Way Out
BALTIMORE, Mar. — On the final play of the first quarter of the Ravens’ week 13 game, Ravens QB, Lamar Jackson, was sacked by Jonathon Cooper, forcing Jackson out of the rest of Baltimore’s 10-9 win over the Denver Broncos. Here was the original injury report.
“Not season-ending.” That’s promising. Two days later, Harbaugh said this.
Now, remember the phrase “being less likely" as you read. “Being less likely” entails that while Jackson may have been less likely to play against the Steelers, but probable to start against the Browns—2 weeks from the time of the injury, which is smack dab in the middle of the 1-3 week timeline.
Now, as a Ravens fan, this is certainly encour—
Great. Just what the Ravens need, especially after a tough 13-3 loss against the Browns. A healthy Lamar equals a healthy chance to advance to 10-5.
“No Lamar Jackson for a third straight game.” Too bad, but the original timeline was 1-3 weeks, so I suppose it makes sense.
Well, yesterday, Jonas Schaffer of the Baltimore Sun tweeted this.
To make matters worse, here’s what Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said in his daily press conference yesterday:
“We just have to see”—a sentence that the entire last 382 days have reeked of for the Ravens. Because the truth is, Lamar Jackson’s “minor” PCL injury is no normal injury. To understand the significance of the Ravens’ vagueness with the injury, we have to look back to December 12, 2021.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Jackson was carted off the field at FirstEnergy stadium. The Ravens who had the worst injury luck of all time in their 2021 season, sat at 8-4 but were sliding downhill. The Ravens’ front office was the first to recognize this. Jackson’s ankle injury was given a 1-3 week timetable, just like this year’s injury, but each week, the quarterback’s return was delayed. When asked about the injury ten days after it occurred, John Harbaugh said,
“That’s a wait and see for [him]. Every single guy you're going to ask me about is all going to be day by day. We'll just see where [he’s] at as we go.”
Sound familiar? It was the Ravens’ plan all along. Knowing that even talent to the level of Jackson’s could not repair the mountain of players on injured reserve, the Ravens would hold him on the sidelines for the remainder of the season, all to portray Jackson in a negative light.
Coming out of Louisville, NFL teams’ biggest concerns about Jackson were his arm and his ability to stay healthy. From draft night, there was uncertainty around building an offense around a run-first QB, and eventually having to pay that QB guaranteed money because of the risk of taking a big, career-altering, hit. Thus, the Ravens knew that if they could keep their superstar out for long enough, the media would feast upon his “injury risk,” and use the injury against Jackson in his contract negotiations, which leads me to my next point.
Contract uncertainty and guaranteed money have been a pattern for mobile quarterbacks in recent years. After his MVP season in 2015, Cam Newton signed the NFL’s 4th largest contract of $103.75 million. However, less than 30% of the money was guaranteed. Back in 2005, the Eagles struck a $100 million deal with Michael Vick—the leading rusher of all time at the quarterback position—but was only guaranteed $36 million. You may ask, what do these negotiations have to do with the Ravens? They give the front office leverage in their discussions with Jackson, who turned down $250 million (only $133 million guaranteed) this offseason, citing Deshaun Watson’s $230 million, fully guaranteed contract as the main reason for rejecting the offer. Even worse for Jackson was that the Ravens could use his “injury history” against him, arguing that the 6 games that he missed in the 2021 season were a cause for concern when offering a fully guaranteed contract.
Well, now, the exact same thing is happening in the 2022 season.
Baltimore, who hold the 5-seed in the AFC, are poised for a postseason run and only sit a few wins away from hosting a playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium on super wild card weekend. So, fans seem justified in their frustration with Harbaugh’s cloudy reports on Jackson’s status.
This year, after their star quarterback went down, the front office looked at the schedule and saw the following teams: Steelers (twice), Browns, Falcons, and Bengals. Aside from Cincinnati, all of these teams entered their bouts with Baltimore with losing records. Eric DeCosta, John Harbaugh, and the rest of the management recognized that they could win games against those four teams with backup QB, Tyler “Snoop” Huntley, at the helm (they’ve gone 2-1 so far), and therefore, could paint the picture that they were resting Lamar until he was needed—against the Bengals. But it’s never been that black and white for the Ravens’ management. No, they’ve chosen to sit out their MVP quarterback—who has given them everything he’s had in his 5 years as a pro—in order to prove that the team can win those games without him, which would decrease his stock in the offseason.
And let’s not forget that the front office has tried to sabotage Jackson from the end of the last year to now by giving him minimal weapons on the outside. Before his contract negotiations were approaching, Baltimore invested in their quarterback, drafting wide receivers Marquise Brown and Rashod Bateman and tight end Hayden Hurst all in the first round, as well as pro-bowl tight end, Mark Andrews, in the third round. Now, Brown is gone, and Bateman and WR2, Devin Duvernay, are both done for the year, and wanting to stain Jackson’s reputation as a pocket passer, the front office has provided Jackson with 35-year-old DeSean Jackson, and Sammy Watkins, who is averaging less than a reception per game this year.
So, before you assume that the Ravens have been simply playing it safe with Lamar Jackson’s current PCL injury, think twice. Just watch. They will hold him out for the rest of the regular season, give Huntley the nod in the playoffs, and get bounced in the early goings. Then, it’s back to the roundtable, where Eric DeCosta will offer Jackson even less guaranteed money than the previous offseason, the two won’t strike a deal, and then it’s off to the market for Jackson, where numerous teams would love to have him (the Patriots, Jets, Colts, Commanders, and any NFC South team emerge at the forefront of the discussion).
At the end of the day, the Ravens don’t think Lamar Jackson is worth the money, and Jackson doesn’t think the Ravens are worth the time. What once looked like a dominant era of smashmouth football coming to the Charm City is now in grave danger of ending in the coming months.
Just revisiting this hot take from 2022... :-)