Lamar Jackson’s contract standoff with the Baltimore Ravens shows no signs of ending, and Richard Sherman thinks the root cause goes back to two quarterbacks.
Sherman said this week on “The Richard Sherman Podcast” that the contracts accepted by Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Buffalo’s Josh Allen hurt Jackson by accepting more team-friendly contracts with much less guaranteed money, thus making Jackson’s rumored demands less reasonable.
“What pissed me off is when Kirk Cousins got his fully-guaranteed deal a couple years ago, I thought all the quarterbacks from then on were gonna be like, ‘If it ain’t guaranteed, I ain’t taking it,’” Sherman said. “Then [Patrick] Mahomes took that BS deal — just 10 years and wanted it to look like half a [billion], but if you get half of that fully guaranteed, everybody’s happier. That sets precedent. But when he didn’t set it, then Josh Allen didn’t set it, now Lamar’s trying to set it after Deshaun [Watson]’s already set it. And they’re like, ‘Nah. We ain’t letting that go.’”
Mahomes signed a 10-year, $450 million contract with the Chiefs in 2020. That sounds like a lot of money, and it certainly is, but only $140 million of it was guaranteed. In terms of total cash, it will mean Mahomes is just the fifth-highest paid quarterback in the NFL in 2023 in terms of average annual salary. Allen is just behind him at No. 6 after signing a contract in 2021 worth $258 million with $150 million of that guaranteed.
Sherman’s point is that both Mahomes and Allen took fairly team-friendly deals with a lot of non-guaranteed money involved. Reports have consistently suggested Jackson wants a fully-guaranteed deal like the one Deshaun Watson got from the Browns. Mahomes’ and Allen’s deals made Watson’s the outlier, thus making Jackson’s demands less likely to be met.
Sherman has consistently backed Jackson in his standoff with the Ravens. Ultimately, dragging the likes of Mahomes and Allen into the debate won’t make anyone more sympathetic to the Ravens quarterback.
