Lamar Jackson, no matter a public commerce request and the possibility to barter with completely different teams, made clear one issue clear Thursday in his first dialog with the media in 5 months: He on a regular basis wished to be Raven.
“I didn’t actually look after different groups,” he talked about at a data conference on the group’s facility in Owings Mills, his first suggestions since agreeing to a record-breaking five-year, $260 million deal that makes him the highest-paid quarterback inside the NFL by the use of annual wage. “I wished to get one thing achieved right here.”
“Ultimately, it was actually two individuals,” Ravens regular supervisor Eric DeCosta added. “I used to be coping with Lamar Jackson the agent. … It wasn’t all the time simple [and] I’d slightly take care of Lamar Jackson the participant. However ultimately, it was simply Lamar and I speaking, texting, emailing one another making an attempt to get a deal achieved. There have been actually no different components concerned.”
Jackson demurred when requested what modified inside the 56 days between his commerce request on March 2 and his signing a contract with the Ravens which will keep him in Baltimore through 2027, saying solely, “I’m not likely fearful about what occurred previously. We’re going to maintain it about these subsequent 5 years and hold it about what’s happening at the moment. It’s an excellent day. … That’s all I’m targeted on proper now.”
But, over the earlier two years, there have been indicators that day received’t come.
There was the two-years-long slog with Baltimore to attain a long-term deal, one which now incorporates a reported $185 million assured and a no-franchise tag clause along with a no-trade clause.
There was the tactic of Jackson, who doesn’t have an agent, representing himself inside the negotiations, leaning solely on his mother, Felicia Jones, who acts as his supervisor.
There was the time interval when the two sides didn’t converse with one another, with fatigue having set in on both sides.
There have been moreover the teams that contacted Jackson after the Ravens positioned the $32.4 million nonexclusive franchise tag on him in March, though the 2019 NFL Most Helpful Participant maintained he certainly not had an curiosity in changing into a member of any of them.
There have been, what DeCosta generally known as Thursday “darkish days,” and uncertainty as as to if a deal would actually be consummated.
There was, most significantly, Jackson’s request to be traded, which he revealed in a tweet one minute sooner than Ravens coach John Harbaugh met with the media all through the NFL owners conferences closing month.
“It was a troublesome stretch,” DeCosta added. “However we all know Lamar. We had lots of conviction that this was the fitting factor to do.”
DeCosta moreover alluded to highly effective data conferences the group has had before now, nevertheless termed this one as good and with good trigger.
“Simply to have your head coach and your GM wanting you to be right here and believing in you, believing you’ll be able to assist your staff obtain the last word purpose with soccer, and NFL soccer at that — it’s like, I wouldn’t need to go no different place,” Jackson talked about.
“It has been an extended wait, however I believe we’re all in the identical place all alongside,” Harbaugh talked about. “We’re all in the identical place going ahead.”
This story may be updated.
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