Lamar Jackson: ESPN reporter hints why Ravens QB refused latest contract offer

Lamar Jackson reportedly offered one final reason as to why he didn’t sign a contract with the Baltimore Ravens this past week.

Despite having all of the offseason and preseason to work out a new deal, the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson were unable to come to an agreement on how they wanted to move forward as a partnership, even with the pressure of a hard deadline coming from Jackson.

Jackson had stated that he wanted his contract negotiations to be finished before the season kicked off this past Sunday against the New York Jets, presumably so that he could have all of his focus on what was happening on the field rather than his finances.  

However, the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement, meaning that, with the Ravens having picked up his 5th-year option last year, Jackson is set to make around $23m this year, but his long-term future is far from secure. The Ravens do have a number of options to hold onto him in the meantime such as the franchsie tag that will have to be activated next summer, but beyond that is a mystery.

But it isn’t as if the Ravens have been trying to short-change Jackson through all of this.

According to a report from ESPN’s Chris Mortenson, the Ravens had offered Jackson a pretty substantial offer on the day of the game, but it wasn’t deemed good enough for Jackson as he turned down their last-ditch attempt to secure him for the long-term:

Sources: Lamar Jackson rejected a Ravens' 6-yr contract offer with $133 million fully guaranteed at signing, which is more than Russell Wilson ($124 million) and Kyler Murray ($103.3 million) but well short of the $230 million fully guaranteed deal that Deshaun Watson got.

With his deadline in the rear-view mirror, that’s where he wants to keep