Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson still gets doubted every year, but he’ll also get credit every now and then for what he’s accomplished with the franchise.
No Super Bowls (yet), but three straight winning seasons with a steady mid-60 percent pass completion rate. Quarterback wins don’t tell the whole story, of course, but they’re a good indication.
Jackson suffered a career-worst year in 2021, but one bad season does not make a bad quarterback, and Jackson, by all accounts, remains the franchise quarterback for the Ravens for the foreseeable future.
The 2019 NFL MVP recently cracked the top tier of NFL Insider Jason La Canfora’s quarterback list, joining the ranks of Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, and others as “bonafide” franchise quarterbacks.
"“Lamar Jackson was playing the best football of his career the first six weeks of the season, which is saying something for someone who won an MVP at his age. He is special, and driven in a contract year.”"
The Ravens need to protect Lamar Jackson at all costs in 2022
Ignoring La Canfora’s personal tumultuous relationship with the Ravens organization, this is satisfactory praise for a quarterback who has proven he can win year after year — in the regular season, at the very least.
Jackson’s contract situation, though, is a whole different ball game. If he’s supposedly as special as those other franchise quarterbacks, shouldn’t he get paid as much?
40 million a year seems like the minimum given the market today, but Jackson’s contract talks have continually stalled all year due to mostly unknown factors.
There should be no doubt that Jackson will play for Baltimore for the 2022 season and that his contract extension will be finalized, at the latest, by next offseason. Compared to other quarterbacks who want their money now, Jackson is playing a high-risk game by not securing his bag, but he also knows where his priorities lie.
We’re happy to see Jackson being included in the league’s elite quarterback conversation, as he rightfully should be. After the Ravens’ home-run offseason, expect Jackson to recover his consistent form as the franchise’s unequivocal quarterback of the future.