Lamar Jackson is currently embroiled in a contract situation with the Baltimore Ravens, being the last year of his deal. In 2022, Jackson will be playing on a fifth-year option with many around the league believing he wants to play out the year before signing a new deal.
While I'm sure Jackson is wanting to get a new deal done as soon as possible, NFL insider Josiana Anderson thinks that if she were in Jackson's situation, she would slam down Deshaun Watson's contract on the table and ask the Raven's front office to add $100 million to that.
During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Monday, Anderson was asked if what her sources are telling her regarding Jackson's contract situation and if he plans to bet on himself this season. Before diving into McAfee's question, Anderson said if she were in Jackson's situation, she would use Watson's contract in Cleveland as a barometer for how much I should get paid.
"If I'm Lamar, I put Deshaun Watson's contract on the table and say do about $10 more million in this, $5 more million this, then we're good and we can just sign," Anderson said Monday.
Anderson does make a solid point as I'm confident Jackson won't be the only notable quarterback seeking that type of money come contract time.
Once Watson signed his massive 5-year, $230 million deal with the Browns despite all the ongoing legal issues regarding the ongoing allegations of the QB sexually assaulting multiple massage therapists in Houston--his contract reset the QB market, much to the benefit of guys like Jackson.
A fan on Twitter claims that Watson was not good enough to have warranted such a deal and says other quarterbacks who are even less talented will want to use his contract as leverage during negotiations.
After providing some more insight into Jackson's situation with the Ravens' front office, Anderson doubled down on her statement.
"I'm just saying, you can go ahead and put your reasons out for that, you want to talk about the situation in Cleveland, you want to talk about inflation, you want to talk about where you see the cap is going, you want to do the franchise tag averages on the years coming up, there's all types of reasons you can start there. But yes, I would basically put Deshaun Watson's contract down, say go ahead and increase on this, hang up and call me back."
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