Let's just jump right into it, Albert, because Lamar Jackson made it back for, uh, this was like Aaron Rodgers.

It was like all of a play.

He throws a pass, he bangs his thumb off the forearm of a Bills defender, and he's back out .

I wrote about this at SI.

com and I'm very curious uh what your thoughts are on this, Albert, but Lamar is one of the more reclusive, I would say, quarterbacks in the NFL whereas like Patrick Mahomes at every step of his ACL recovery, we had some sort of uh hype montage video, we knew.

Exactly how the ligaments were doing, you know, he wanted to present, and a lot of quarterbacks want to present in the way that's like, look at all I'm doing to get back to you.

Uh, Lamar is not that kind of person, but I think now, as he's approaching a critical moment to restructure his contract this offseason, he probably needs to become that person in some way, shape or form, because If you don't know, the Ravens, his cap number is $84 million next season, right?

The Ravens need to redo his contract before next year.

And now Lamar has played just one full season of games if he truly is on IR through the rest of the season, which Jesse Minner said is a possibility, which means it's probably likely.

If we lose him for the rest of the season, he's now played one complete season's worth of games in 2 years, um, you know, and he's gonna hit his age 30 season next year.

I wonder if this is a time where the Ravens have a good long, hard think about whether they wanna keep re-upping the Lamar experience and, and maybe it's just going to shorter term, more highly guaranteed deals.

I don't know what it is, but I, I think something probably changes in the tenor of the relationship from this one.

Well, um, let me start here as a shame, right, because he was, he was playing great and like it really looked like he was a good match for Declan Doyle, their new defense, their new offensive coordinator, and obviously, um, it felt to me like this was a guy who was gonna start playing really, really well, you know, and like the early, um, the early indications, I think they opened with Indy, is that right?

Like wasn't that they played at Indy maybe in the opener looked great one, and I, I think there was a ton of reason to be optimistic about where he was going forward and where he would take that, you know, when you, once you got to like November and December and January.

So, first of all, this is a shame.

The other thing, and I've talked about this the last, um, last couple of years, is that there is some correlation with missed games with him, um, when he's been in contract situations.

So, in 21 and 22, Um, he missed, you know, 5 games each year.

Um, the Ravens tend to manage him differently when he's in a contract negotiation, or at least it seems that way, happened again last year.

This is not that.

This is, I mean, this is like an existential thing to a quarterback.

Anything that happens, your elbow, your hand, your thumb, your fingers, anything on your throwing hand, um, obviously, that prevents you from doing your job.

So, Um, it sucks in just about every way possible, and it's hard not now to have the conversation about his future because I, I'd say this, like, I don't know how much of him not having a contract past 2027 is the Ravens, and how much of it is, he didn't want to negotiate one yet.

And because he is quiet about this stuff and he doesn't make public this stuff, there's at least been, I think, some even internal speculation.

Well, does he eventually want to go to Miami?

Does he, does he wanna do that in 2028?

And again, like that's just speculation, but it's speculation you hear from people within the league, within these teams, and, you know, it's hard not to look at it and match it up with Malik Willis's two-year deal and like Miami could be built up to some degree by the time we get to 2028.

Um, there are a lot of big picture questions that come with this because There's a good chance now, we've seen the last of Lamar before his contract year.

So now his contract is front and center.

And, um, this might be an opportunity for the Ravens to dive back in and see if they can get something done again.

I certainly would.

I mean this is not a wear and tear injury, you know what I mean like this isn't like one of those like where it's like, oh well, is he breaking it?

No, it was a freak thing, you know, he, he, he banged his thumb like and it sucks and it's unfortunate, but this isn't like anything like where you say like, yeah, like I don't know if you can invest in him anymore.

Uh, the high ankle sprain would be a little more along those lines like that will give you a little more of that concern, uh, but yeah, I mean, I think the, the, the contract negotiation now is front, front and center.

And I think the Ravens are, are willing to explore it and willing to look at it.

And I think even now while he's injured, I think they would be willing to look at it.

The question is, does Lamar want to do it?

And we'll see what the answer to that is.

I, I mean, yeah, I don't want to make it seem like I'm the one that's saying that the Ravens should question this.

I think that we've all, you know, he's a, he, he's a, by the way, one thing, one thing, one thing, one thing, 11 more thing, sorry, I think, I think we should say here before I let you go is.

That the reason I'm talking about him like a little different than I do other quarterbacks when other quarterbacks are in this situation is because he has a no tag clause at the end of his contract, which is a major piece to all of this.

So he doesn't need to lift a finger to become a free agent in 2028.

He doesn't need to do anything.

He just needs to let the contract expire, which is rare for, it's rare for a quarterback of his.

Level to get to a contract year with that sort of stipulation on the end of a deal.

Can he even let this deal play out though?

Again, I mean, it's an $84 million cap hit.

He's gonna account for like 30% of the Ravens' finances next year .

Wasn't that always the, like they did, I mean, you could always screw with that number, so you could make, you could make the void years, right, and you could put the, yeah, I mean you could always screw with that.

Let me pull the contract up, but like I, I like, I, I.

I'm pretty confident they could find a way to screw with that and spread the hit out again.

That money doesn't just disappear, uh, but the cab number this year is 34.4. Next year it'll be 84.3, which I, I'm sure would be a record.

It would have to be, right, like without looking at it.

Um, the problem is they've already got, it looks to me like, and I'm looking at this here.

$40 million in dead money, over $40 million in dead money beyond that.

So there's another $40 million to deal with beyond that.

So you're either taking the big hit.

And you're either taking the big hit in 27, or you're gonna be taking the big hit hit a year or two after that, which, like, quite honestly, is how a lot of these, um, a lot of these contracts are structured.

I wonder, and again, and this is why I wrote that I think Lamar needs to go on offense a little bit.

I think that it's an advantage, certainly for him that he is a, you know, talk softly, carry a big stick kind of guy.

But when you don't fill the void with your true feelings and wants and desires, the void fills it for you, right?

We're filling it for him, uh, you know, everybody else, and then I like Lamar, he makes me laugh cause, like, you always wonder what he's thinking and then he'll just all of a sudden comment on like a TikTok video that a fan made and then, like, that's him breaking his silence after, like, 3 months or whatever it is.

But in this particular situation, and I'm not gonna start the Lamar needs an agent conversation, a real agent, you know, but like, man, you, you, you know, You need the force of something behind you to deal with.

I'm not trying to be flippant.

Why?

Why does he need one?

Why does he need that?

Why does, why did I've always, here's what I've always respected about him.

I respect guys who don't give a fuck and I I don't, I, I think he genuinely.

I don't think he really cares what other people think, and I think he's a genuinely good guy.

Like, I think you sat down and you talked with him.

He's a genuinely good guy, but I just, he's unique in that he's not wrapped up in what everybody else thinks, and I've sort of come to this determination with him, and I really respect it about him is like he cares about the people around him, cares about his family, cares about his teammates, um, he's really well liked with everybody that he works with.

Um, but he's always marched the beat of his own drummer and.

I, I like, I hear what you're saying, and I'd probably agree with most players, but I don't know why at this point in his career, he would feel the need to do it differently than he's, than he's doing it right now and has done it for the last, you know, I mean, going on, what this is his 9th year in the NFL.

Yeah, my answer to that would be the last time that this came to a head.

Actually, and I think, and maybe I'm interpreting it differently and maybe you have a different thought on this, but when Lamar really stared into the sun on this one, and he was texting DeCosta and saying, I want a fully guaranteed deal, I mean, we saw those texts come out um in the NFLPA document leak.

The force that the NFL and the parent club can come at you with is like nothing that a player on his own is prepared for.

Like, I mean, even, like, the, the stuff that was leaked on Lamar to embarrass him during that time, you know, it was like, you know, To make it seem like the, the home health fitness professional was trying to negotiate his contract, you know, I mean, there was a lot of stuff like that that was coming out about Lamar at that time.

And I think what you need is someone in your corner who knows how to play that game, because this is probably the last big contract that he's ever gonna sign.

I mean, let's be real, this is, he's coming up on his age 32 or his age 30 season.

He's 29 right now.

Um, you know, I, I think teams would have fair questions about how long he can be like Lamar Lamar, right?

And Lamar is gonna be a great pocket passer until the day he dies, right?

I mean, he's gonna be great at 37, he's gonna be great at 38 if he wants to be.

But if you're paying 50, 60, 75 million.

Dollars a year for the full Lamar experience.

You want the full Lamar experience.

You don't want what the Steelers have with Aaron Rodgers right now, which is still great, but it's not the full Aaron Rodgers experience.

And so if I'm thinking like him, this is the last bite at the apple.

This is the last big bite at the apple, and you need this thing managed to a point where, and if you have the force of a big agency behind you, they can think about.

Shit that you can't even possibly fathom right now, you know , how you need to structure this thing, how you need to get in and get out, how you need to do all this kind of stuff.

And it's like, uh, it's my genuine respect for him that I'm just like, I love the way that you've done it to this point, but just get out with the bag.

Like, I want him to get out with the bag, you know what I'm saying?

And I, I, I, I think that the last time he came up for a new deal, We saw what could happen when things get, get dirty, you know what I mean, and, and, and get, and, and we start mud wrestling a little bit, you know.

I, I just think like, and if he doesn't care, that's cool, but like, yeah, I mean if it doesn't matter to him, that's the whole thing.

Like if it doesn't matter to him and it doesn't seem like it's ever mattered to him, like why would it start mattering now when he should it matter to him when it might matter to another team that sees this stuff and it's like maybe you know, but he's such a great player like.

Do you think, for example, like the Miami Dolphins or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the, you know, whoever isn't gonna pursue him?

Because well they did it last time, like, like nobody did the last time, you know what I mean, right?

Well, I mean this time, which is crazy to think about, but like the last time there was the franchise tag and there is some element of collusion.

It's not Voldemort.

We could say it collusion, but if, but, but if you look at like the history, if you look at the history of the, the franchise tag, right, you know why it first came into play, right?

Well, to prevent this, you know, it was, it was, it was specifically to prevent quarterbacks from moving because when they were, when they put in free agency in the early 90s, the history of this is actually really interesting.

It was Pat Boland was the owner of the Broncos, and his quarterback, John Elway was at odds with Dan Reeves.

And he was concerned about free agency allowing his quarterback to leave.

And so the advent of the franchise tag was the owners trying to come up with a way to make sure quarterback movement.

Wouldn't happen and to protect the teams in a case where they did have a John Elway and so Pat Bolin was sort of the one who pushed that and said we can't have like chaos and quarterbacks switching teams.

We need to have these organizations need to have stability, so they wound up putting the franchise tag and now obviously it's been used a zillion different ways since, but that's the advent of it.

And so someone, a quarterback getting out there and challenging that, right.

is, would be like sort of an existential threat to the owners, wouldn't it?

Because then any quarterback, if you prove, all right, if you prove, That We can Like a quarterback will go for two first round picks, which we've seen them traded for that before.

Then wouldn't more quarterbacks just play out their rookie deal if they weren't happy where they're at?

Totally, and they should.

Like, right, I mean, that's a different, it's just hard if you're, if you're in that position though.

Like if you're like Caleb Williams or Drake May after this year, it, it would be really hard to turn down like $70 million per year.

But if, I mean like that's always why I've said like Kirk Cousins deserves, like everybody acts like Kirk Cousins like fell into all these riches.

No, he like gambled on himself.

He took risks that a lot of their guys weren't taking, you know, and Kirk playing out has a great.

Agent, agent, he has a great agent, but Lamar did the same thing.

Lamar played out his too, right.

Yeah, anyway, it's, it's, it's a, it's it, it's interesting because, like, I think.

I don't know that there's like a real precedent for what could be coming down the pike here and like the handling of it is certainly gonna be under a lot of scrutiny.

I think you and I are maybe a little bit.

Disconnected on the point of, um, of, of where he goes.

I just think like I'd agree with a lot of players like that you're right, like, and most players do need that.

I, I just, a quarterback of that level who's won two MVPs, I, I, I think he's kind of OK doing his own thing if he wants to.

It's funny because I feel like.

We will end up , for some reason, having more owners curious about what they're getting in Lamar than what they were getting in Deshaun Watson at the time, which is insane to me.

Just because, again, I, I, you know, there's a, I, I, I know how these people think, I know how these people operate, and there's just so much, there's so many questions about Lamar because Lamar doesn't care to answer them, and that's great.

I mean, I wish I could be like that.

But I, my, my thought is that that's why you would do it now.

That's why you would at least find some sort of a way to get ahead of this because you want, you know, you want Stephen Ross, you want the Glazers, you want everybody to be like, I want that guy in my building.

I want that guy in my building today.

Um, but anyway, um, We need to.

That was a good 20 minutes a Lamar Jackson.

It was fun.

This is why it wouldn't be a fun podcast if you were just like, great point, Albert.

OK, let's go.

No, no, no, no, no, but I think it's like, I, I think it's to me it's like one of the more interesting.

It's one of the more interesting storylines of the next that's coming over the next two years, you know, I mean, it's not like Josh Allen's changing teams.

Joe Burrow, there's been rumblings of that eventually happening, but he seems good in Cincinnati.

Um, you know, Patrick Mahomes isn't going anywhere , you know, and, and, and in all likelihood, Caleb Williams and Drake May are gonna sign long-term extensions where they're at.

Brock Purdy is not going anywhere.

And we'll see with CJ, but like, Lamar is the big one that's sitting out there that, man, if there's a quarterback that moves over the next couple of years, maybe it's him.