Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens finally reached an agreement on a new contract for five years, $260 million. The two sides came together last week for a news conference and to officially put ink to paper. Now that the dust has settled, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta discussed how Jackson and his mom, who was representing Jackson as well, overwhelmed him with their knowledge about the business of football during contract negotiations.
Smart Guy
DeCosta sat down with Mike Florio on NBC Sports’ “Pro Football Talk” podcast and discussed Jackson’s contract negotiations.
“Lamar is a good agent from the standpoint of he asks the right questions, he knows what he wants in a lot of different ways, he’s aware of different mechanisms and issues with the contract, language terms, types of structures, things like that,” DeCosta said. “He’s done his homework with all of that stuff. He’s a very, very smart guy, savvy. And he did a great job overall.”
Jackson and his mom negotiated the now highest annual salary contract in the NFL. Of the $260 million total over five years, $185 million is guaranteed. The deal topped Jalen Hurts contract for $255 million that he agreed to in mid-April.
Messy Before Pretty
The Ravens and Jackson were all smiles during their press conference last week, but it wasn’t like that during their negotiations. The team placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on the former MVP in March.
It was also revealed that Jackson requested a trade, but he stated on last week he never wanted to leave the organization.
Also, Jackson was heavily criticized by several NFL reporters and sports analysts for not having an agent. Florio was one of the many people that criticized him.
“Lamar, you need to hire an agent. Now,” Florio said on his show back in March. “Hire an agent now to shepherd you through this process, to aggressively contact all the teams, to try to get someone to come up with an offer sheet that maybe the Ravens couldn’t or wouldn’t match.”
Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless said numerous times on their show “Undisputed” that he needed to hire an agent.
The NFL even sent out a memo to all 32 teams urging them not to communicate to non-NFLPA certified agents. The memo was sent out because the NFL got notice of a man claiming to represent Jackson.
The star quarterback responded to the memo in a tweet that read, “Stop Lying that man never tried to negotiate for me.”
Jackson has set a new precedent across the league and sports. One example is LSU women’s basketball player Flau’Jae Johnson, who opted to not have representation and has her mom represent her with securing NIL deals.
Hopefully, Jackson and Johnson’s actions will result in players and their parents educating themselves more about the business of sports.
