Student opinion: Lamar Jackson and the million-dollar chess game

Lamar Jackson, the 26-year-old quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, has become a chess piece in a million-dollar power play.

In the NFL (and sports in general), every contract negotiation is based on precedent. When Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was given a $230 million, fully guaranteed contract at the age of 26, that contract set a new precedent for the quarterback position. If you read that sentence again, two words matter more than others — “fully guaranteed.”

The Watson contract, being as lucrative as it was and being fully guaranteed, slammed a massive wrench into the system NFL ownerships had created because it set a new precedent. That precedent is a fully guaranteed deal. So now Jackson, looking for a new deal, can point to the Watson contract and say, “I want that.”

And not only is Jackson following precedent by asking for a contract of that size, but he also has even more of a claim to one than Watson ever did. Not only has Jackson done more than Watson on the football field — namely, winning an MVP by unanimous decision and going on multiple deep playoff runs with lackluster rosters surrounding him — but he also hasn’t seen anything close to the same off-field controversies as Watson. I’m not going to go into the entire issue that surrounds Watson and his legal problems, but according to People magazine, he has been a part of 24 civil lawsuits, and he was still guaranteed $230 million. 

So, Jackson is absolutely in his right to ask for a similarly sized contract after doing more on the field and less off it. The problem now for Jackson is actually getting that contract. The Ravens declined to pay him the deal and have chosen to place Jackson on the non-exclusive franchise tag. Basically, Jackson has the ability to negotiate with other teams, but the Ravens have the ability to match whatever contract those teams can come up with or let Jackson walk. 

And as soon as he signed that, the Ravens announced they would sign Jackson to the non-exclusive tag, and Jackson was hit with an invisible wall. 

Immediately after the announcement, five NFL teams announced via the media that they would be out of the Lamar Jackson sweepstakes and would not be pursuing him. And some of these teams, like the Falcons, the Panthers, the Raiders and the Commanders, are all in need of a quarterback in a quarterback-driven league. 

Frankly, this reeks of collusion between the NFL owners. Although I have no proof of such a thing, the way that so many teams, all of whom need the most valuable position in sports, declined to even meet with a 26-year-old unanimous MVP is insane. 

So now the question is, why would NFL owners want Jackson to not get the contract that he believes he should sign, and, based on precedent, he deserves? That answer, sadly, might be the simplest thing in this whole conundrum. The owners, who may or may not be colluding against Jackson, want to reset the market and make sure the Watson contract was an outlier, not a precedent-setter. 

So now Jackson, who is simply looking to get paid what he believes he is worth, has become a pawn in the NFL owners’ attempt to regain power and not have to pay their players — whom nothing in sports would be possible without — all the money they promise them. 

What happens now? Well, what happens now is we wait for someone to flinch. Who flinches first is the question. Will it be Jackson, who might have to go back to the Ravens and play on the franchise tag with no knowledge of his future? Or is the one owner who decides that the generational and franchise-altering talent of Lamar Jackson is worth more than ticking off the other owners who care more about keeping money in their pocket than winning? We will see. 

Palsgrove is the asst. sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on Twitter