The Baltimore Ravens haven’t gotten over the proverbial hump yet in their current era, falling short of the Super Bowl every year despite being one of the league’s best teams, but the franchise is doing everything it can to get there. The Ravens have arguably the league’s best quarterback in Lamar Jackson, and they are consistently aggressive in free agency and the draft, making sure to build a complete team.
After recently signing veteran corner Jaire Alexander, no one would fault Baltimore if it decided to take its foot off the pedal until the season started. However, ESPN recently reminded everyone that the work is never done in the NFL, with analyst Aaron Schatz suggesting one final offseason move for all 32 teams. For the Ravens, Schatz was going to propose the team sign Alexander, but since they already did, he believes now is the perfect time to extend Lamar Jackson.
ESPN believes it’s time to give Lamar Jackson another extension
This may seem like a premature move since the veteran quarterback is under contract for three more years, but Schatz explains why getting a new deal done this offseason actually makes sense.
"Jackson is signed through 2027, but the two-time MVP is now 10th among quarterbacks in average annual salary. An extension would make him happy and open up a ton of salary cap space for the Ravens to use in 2026 and 2027. (Jackson is set to have a cap number of over $74 million next season.)"Aaron Schatz (ESPN)
The Ravens seemingly agree it’s time to start thinking about an extension for Jackson, because as Schatz pointed out, Baltimore general manager Eric DeCosta has already revealed the team is in the “introductory stages” of talks with the quarterback about a new deal.
With quarterbacks signing new deals every offseason, Jackson’s $52 million a year is no longer representative of where he stands amongst the league’s quarterbacks. With Dak Prescott leading the QB market at $60 million annually, Jackson trails guys like Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff, and Brock Purdy. A new extension won’t only, rightfully, place him in front of those guys, it’ll help the Ravens save some money.
As guys seemingly reset the market every offseason, the longer a team waits to get a deal done, the more expensive it gets. Extending Jackson ahead of the 2025 season would allow the franchise to put any further talks to bed for a few years while the market continues to rise. Additionally, the more years Jackson is under contract for, the more years his money could be spread across. That means lower cap hits, which allows the team to keep adding elite talent around him.
There’s no doubt Jackson will be the quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens for the foreseeable future, so the franchise might as well get an extension out the way right now.