Lamar Jackson was franchise tagged with the non-exclusive tag by the Ravens on March 7th. The tag allows LJ to negotiate a contract with any team freely. The Ravens then get a week to either match the deal or accept the signing team's next two first round picks as compensation. As of April 1st no team has made LJ an offer. Some parties, Mike Florio prominently, think this is an example of collusion by the owners to deprive Lamar Jackson of his right to free agency. I would argue that a player subject to either of the franchise tags has no effective path to free agency and that LJ has additional restrictions imposed both by his fragility and by his choice not to hire an agent to represent him. The non-exclusive tag works in the favor of the team extending it. It allows them to outsource their contract negotiating to the NFL as a whole and then choose either to match the contract that is signed or to take generous compensation for the player in return. No team is likely to allow the Ravens to take their resources (the personnel required to negotiate and craft the contract offer) and then lose LJ to a simple match of their contract offer. There is no compensation involved for that lost effort on their part if the Ravens choose to match the contract. This is not collusion it is common sense. The only answer for any other team is to overpay significantly for LJ's services to force the Ravens not to match. Their reward for doing that is to give up two first round picks and also substantially disrupt their and the NFL's salary structures. LJ also has had shortened seasons the last couple of years due to minor injuries. This likely played into the Ravens determination not to sign him to a big guaranteed deal. It possibly played into their decision not to extend the full franchise tag, which would have paid more for the season. So the big picture suggests that Lamar Jackson will not receive a contract offer from another NFL team because the non-exclusive franchise tag does not reward anybody but the team extending it. This is a practical matter not a matter of collusion or unfair business practices. The CBA set this mechanism in place and that's why LJ is not going to receive a contract offer from any other team. Additionally Lamar Jackson has chosen not to have professional representation at this point. He has nobody whose job it is to get him an improbable contract offer from a team under the existing conditions of his free agency. This is a critical mistake on his part for many reasons not the least of which is that he has no buffer between himself, the Ravens and the NFL as a whole. If we take this decision as an attempt to maintain control of his finances we kind of have to come to the conclusion that LJ thinks he is playing this season under the terms of the tag and doesn't want somebody taking some of his money despite that fact. This would be a logical choice, viewed from the perspective of LJ being unwilling to accept anything but the top of his potential market and knowing that he has no way to get there this season. There's no path that works in LJ's favor in which he does not play this season. He would face a loss of competitive interaction that is hard to replace and he would do so for $0. This compared to playing the season for $32M, which are the terms of the non-exclusive tag. We're going to hear a lot about how LJ was given the business, by the Ravens, by the NFL, even by the CBA, but the reality is that nothing great was going to come out of this opportunity for LJ. The process is likely particularly grating for LJ because he has nobody to explain to him why things are happening the way they are and so he is forced to look at all of the media stuff and try to factor that himself. The amount he saves by doing that is $972K this year. You could argue he is making the right decision unless he lets this stuff drive him crazy.
This is why the Ravens are an excellent organization. They just sent Lamar a message, this is what the league thinks about you and we are not treating you unfairly. They will probably draft another QB soon.
Ian Rapoport on Twitter: "The #Ravens and star QB Lamar Jackson have made progress on a mega-deal, sources say. It’s not done. But Baltimore may keep their star, and Lamar should get paid. https://t.co/GJup2YPZvM" / Twitter
LJ got bailed out by the Hurts contract. The deal provided some perspective on where NFL QB contracts are going and the Ravens blinked. The QB contract situation at the moment is really going to punish a lot of teams that have to deal with it.
Collectively NFL teams are going to get badly burned by the new QB paradigm. The NFL is not a one man band.
So much for all that talk about him not having an agent. He got paid just fine and now doesn't owe some suit wearing douche 3% of it
