Lamar Jackson is said to be seeking a contract that is comparable to the deal Deshaun Watson got from the Cleveland Browns last year, but the Baltimore Ravens have reportedly offered nothing even close to that.
Watson signed a five-year, $230 million contract with Cleveland that is fully guaranteed. Jackson, who does not have an agent, is said to have asked Baltimore for a comparable deal. According to ESPN’s Ryan Clark, the Ravens never went higher than $133 million guaranteed when the two sides negotiated last offseason.
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.
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) January 21, 2023
The extension Watson signed with the Browns has become an outlier. That said, $133 million guaranteed would be well short of what other star quarterbacks have gotten over the past year or two.
Kyler Murray signed a $230.5 million deal with the Arizona Cardinals last offseason that includes $189 million guaranteed. Russell Wilson’s $242 million extension with the Denver Broncos has $161 million guaranteed.
If Clark’s report is accurate, that shows you how fair apart Jackson and the Ravens were when they last negotiated. That is why the franchise tag seems like a virtual certainty this offseason, though the Ravens may not be ruling out one other option.
