Ignore The Noise. Lamar Jackson Will Stay With Baltimore Ravens For Years And Years

Aren’t folks paying attention? Lamar Jackson isn’t going anywhere, not unless another NFL team operates within a slant pass of Edgar Allan Poe’s grave, blue crabs and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor (hint, hint).

He will stay with the Ravens.

He will sign a long-term contract as their quarterback beyond his current deal of $32.4 million for the 2023 season on a non-exclusive franchise tag.

Then, to the surprise of only the naïve, he will live happily ever after.

So will the Ravens.

“We’ve probably made more trades than just about any other team in the league. Maybe we’re second,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta told reporters last month during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “That being said, I covet great players. I covet quarterbacks. And I love Lamar. So that has not factored in one time with me.”

Then came Monday in Phoenix during the NFL owners’ meetings, where much of America obsessed over something the size of an Arizona cactus needle as opposed to the equivalent of nearby Camelback Mountain.

About that needle: It was Jackson’s tweet.

Moments before Ravens coach John Harbaugh prepared to address the media, Jackson’s agent rushed to Twitter, and who is his agent?

Well, um, Jackson.

He has tried and failed before each of the past two seasons to get the deal he believes he deserves from the Ravens (see the average annual salaries of Aaron Rodgers at $50.3 million, Russell Wilson at $49 million and Kyler Murray at $46.1 million), so he tweeted his request for a trade from the team on March 2.

Here was the Camelback Mountain: The Ravens don’t want him to go, which means they’ll pay to make that happen.

Just wait.

When told about Jackson’s tweet, Harbaugh shrugged, smiled and said to the reporters, “I haven’t seen the tweet. It’s an ongoing process. I’m following it very closely, just like everybody else is here and looking forward to a resolution. I’m excited. Thinking about Lamar all the time. Thinking about him as our quarterback. We’re building our offense around that idea. I’m just looking forward to getting back to football and I’m confident that’s going to happen.”

Two days after Harbaugh kept wrapping his arms tightly around Jackson, Ravens president Sashi Brown did the same, saying at the NFL owners’ meetings: “We love Lamar. We’re committed to getting something done.”

That’s the president, the general manager and the head coach of the Ravens proclaiming they aren’t goofy in the head. They cherish their 26-year-old superstar who won NFL Most Valuable Player honor four seasons ago.

It’s also not as if other teams are calling Jackson, who can negotiate a free agent deal with any of the other 31 NFL teams, or the Ravens, who can trade their best player for whatever they want. One by one, bosses from quarterback-needy franchises declared this week they aren’t interested in Jackson, and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank led the way.

“Looking at it objectively, there is some concern about whether or not he can play his style of game for — how long can that last,” Blank told reporters at the NFL owners’ meeting. His reference was to Jackson’s injury history during the last two years, including the controversy surrounding the way he missed the Ravens’ 2022 season due to his damaged knee.

Whatever.

The Ravens still want him.

Harbaugh, DeCosta and Brown know they’ve watched Jackson grow from a rookie with the Ravens in 2018 to NFL Most Valuable Player the next year, and they know he’s only 26. They mostly know Lamar Demeatrice Jackson Jr. is the primary reason for the post-Ray Lewis relevance of their franchise.

Courtesy of Jackson and his swift legs and potent arm, the Ravens were 10th in the NFL last season in average home attendance (70,589) despite ranking just 19th on Forbes’ team evaluation list at $3.9 billion.

Here’s another thing: Common sense.

Why would the Ravens allow Jackson to bolt after they reached deep into their piggybank for Todd Monken during the offseason?

Monken spent each of the last two college football seasons helping the University of Georgia win national championships. He did so as the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator by turning previously obscure quarterback Stetson Bennett into a Heisman Trophy finalist.

No way Ravens officials would entice Monken from operating as the highest-paid assistant coach at the college level at $2 million to making a reported $3 million to $5 million — you know, just to coach Tyler Huntley and Anthony Brown, Jackson’s backups with the Ravens.

Monken left Georgia to coach Jackson for multiple seasons.

And Monken will.