Remember, no team pursued franchise-tagged Lamar Jackson

Lamar Jackson, a 26-year-old former MVP and one of the NFL’s most electrifying players at the most valuable position in sports, was available to talk about a new contract with any team for 43 days.

From the start of free agency to April 27, when he agreed to a new $260 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens, he was on the non-exclusive franchise tag. That meant any team could have signed him to an offer sheet. And for 43 days, there were no reported visits or offers from any other team to one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

When you watch the NFL this month, with all the backup quarterbacks and even some preferred starters flailing around as teams fall further out of the playoff race, remember that none of those teams wanted Jackson.

There were some drawbacks to pursuing Jackson. He was going to be very expensive. Jackson had an injury history. It would have cost the signing team two first-round draft picks if the Ravens didn’t match, though that’s not much for a quarterback. Look at the Russell Wilson or Bryce Young trades. Pursuing Jackson and failing would have been awkward for teams that had returning quarterbacks.

Also, the rest of the NFL seemed to figure the Ravens were matching any deal anyway. And the correct answer to that is: So what? You still try with a player that valuable. Make the most difficult contract possible for the Ravens to match and if they do match it, well, you move on with no regrets. The NFL should be a competitive market, not one in which team owners are playing nice so everyone can be friendly at the next league meeting.

And none of the excuses really let teams off the hook. When you watch Jackson playing at an MVP level again, perhaps leading the Ravens to the AFC’s No. 1 seed, and then watch how many teams are suffering through horrendous quarterback play, it becomes more maddening how many teams showed no interest. Teams weren’t rushing to talk to Jackson, they were rushing to leak out to various media outlets how they had no…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-power-rankings-remember-no-team-pursued-franchise-tagged-lamar-jackson-120013557.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-12-19 12:00:13

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