Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens could not agree on a new contract. While Jackson is apparently insisting on a long-term, fully guaranteed contract, the Ravens aren’t going along with that. And they’re absolutely right about that! One comment.

“The Baltimore Ravens have no interest in representing my value in a contract. Therefore, I have requested a trade.”

Lamar Jackson tweeted this past Monday. The news dropped like a bombshell and is the next chapter in a saga, almost farce, surrounding the quarterback.

It’s Jackson’s right to have his own views on his “value,” yet it’s just as much the Ravens’ right to have other ideas. If Jackson really is demanding a fully guaranteed contract in the dimensions of Deshaun Watson (230 million over five years), then the Ravens are doing everything right in this case.

Lamar Jackson: “Copycat League” doesn’t apply to the Ravens

There’s a reason the Ravens have been one of the most successful teams in the AFC since 2000, possibly only behind the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs, and have had the same head coach in John Harbaugh since 2008.

The Maryland team thrives on a culture all its own – and that culture is not based on a quarterback who swallows a quarter of the available salary. In fact, the Ravens made the playoffs in 2022 even with the backup of the backup and fell just a hair’s breadth short of the Cincinnati Bengals.

It’s only logical that Jackson would look at division rival Cleveland Browns and quarterback Watson and say to himself “Hey, I’m better than that guy, so I should get more money, too.” But the Browns, with few exceptions, have been the laughingstock of the AFC for years, while the Ravens won two Super Bowls and two-thirds of their playoff games in an era with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.

It would be as if SC Freiburg suddenly copied Hertha BSC’s methods because someone there demanded it. The NFL is considered a “Copycat League”, but that has limits. The Ravens won’t give a player who has missed eight games since 2021 with an injury a guaranteed sum of that magnitude. If Jackson can’t guarantee he’ll be on the field this weekend, the Ravens shouldn’t guarantee him money either.

Lamar Jackson is getting bad advice – namely, not at all

The biggest flaw in these negotiations – and for everyone involved – is Jackson’s lack of counsel. Officially, he is represented by his mother, but de facto he sits at the negotiating table himself.

What sounds great in theory and even saves money – NFL agents receive three percent of the contract volume as salary – is more than disadvantageous in practice, however. Jackson logically has no emotional distance from himself. That these negotiations would end in a bang was predictable.

At the end of the day, there will be a team that not only pays the necessary two first-round picks as trade compensation, but also the required guaranteed amount for the playmaker.

But that will almost certainly not be a team with sustained success like Baltimore.