Quarterback Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed contract with the Cleveland Browns is also complicating negotiations with franchise star Lamar Jackson, according to Baltimore Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome. The league’s owners may want to prevent such contracts in the future.

The playmaker market has been in turmoil since the Cleveland Browns signed quarterback Deshaun Watson to an unprecedented fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract last year.

Ozzie Newsome, executive vice president of the Baltimore Ravens, admits that his team sees Watson’s contract as an obstacle in negotiations with star quarterback Lamar Jackson. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, in particular, said the deal is a thorn in his side.

“Every team has to know how to handle contracts. I don’t care what other people do, but our owner has said that this contract has caused some problems,” the 67-year-old insisted on “The Bernie Kosar Show”, himself a Ravens general manager for 17 years before returning to the role of executive vice president in 2019.

The franchise would be watching developments in the quarterback market quite closely. “We need to find out if this is the norm or if it’s an outlier. We don’t know,” Newsome added.

In circles of franchise owners, who are meeting this week for the NFL League Meeting, the attitude is increasingly spreading that they want to consistently defend themselves against further fully guaranteed contracts in the future.

Lamar Jackson’s contract negotiations become a political issue

The 26-year-old was unable to reach an agreement with the franchise on a long-term deal with the Ravens, even after months of contract negotiations, and was tagged with the non-exclusive franchise tag.

Other franchises can use it to make Jackson a contract offer. Baltimore could then match the offer or would receive two first-round picks as compensation for a trade.

Prospects for the former MVP have been scarce so far. According to “Pro Football Talk”, the reason is that Jackson’s desire for a larger guaranteed sum is more than other franchise owners are said to be willing to pay.

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA), the league’s players’ union, had subsequently accused team owners of colluding to prevent more fully guaranteed contracts from coming to fruition, according to the report, and criticised how it could be that a player of Jackson’s class had to wait so long for a deal.

“This is a defining moment, aside from Lamar, as talented as he is, there are a whole bunch of quarterbacks that are moving up right behind him,” DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA’s executive director, had pointed out on the “Pivot Podcast” recently, causing further turmoil:

“So it literally depends on whether we move forward with guaranteed contracts. We have the Watson contract that could be tied to Lamar’s contract. “