Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson reportedly turned down a guaranteed contract of $133 million.
Last September, ESPN reported that sources said Jackson turned down a contract offered by the Baltimore Ravens that called for him to make over $250 million over the life of the deal. About $133 million of the deal was guaranteed. Neitherr Jackson nor the Ravens confirmed nor denied the aspects of the deal.
Now that the Ravens have been eliminated from the NFL playoffs, the discussion has come up again as Jackson’s rookie contract is coming to an end.
The subject came up after a recent episode of ESPN’s First Take. Analyst Ryan Clark spoke about it and essentially confirmed the speculative amount of the contract that the 26-year-old NFL player turned down before the beginning of the just-completed football season.
“We went back and forth on @FirstTake yesterday about @Lj_era8’s guaranteed money. Based on a source with knowledge of the negotiations Lamar was initially offered $113 million in guarantees and eventually raised to $133 million. That was the most Lamar was offered.”
Although Jackson finished this season a little banged up and did not play in the last few games, his value is still high. Now that he is a free agent, he may be the player that teams covet this off-season.
According to The New York Post, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said last week that he is “100 percent” certain that Jackson will be the team’s quarterback after this year. He emphasized it his certainty by saying, “You know, 200%.”
“Lamar Jackson is our quarterback,” Harbaugh said. “He’s been our quarterback. Everything we’ve done in terms of building our offense and building our team, how we think in terms of the people and put people around him, is based on this incredible young man and his talent and his ability and his competitiveness.”