In January, the NFL Players Association scored a partial victory in a collusion grievance against the league. The outcome was inexplicably hidden by the NFLPA for more than five months, until Pablo Torre found out.
The grievance focused on three quarterbacks who failed to get fully-guaranteed contracts after the NFL’s Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, urged teams to avoid fully-guaranteed deals. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, a 2019 MVP who strangely drew no interest as a non-exclusive franchise player in 2023, was the biggest name involved.
On Wednesday, Jackson declined to comment on the matter.
“I’m focused on football right now,” Jackson told reporters, via Noah Trister of the Associated Press. “I’m not worried about that right now. That happened. It is what it is. I’m focused on this right now.”
That’s his absolute right. He also has the absolute right to be upset that the truth about the case was buried by the union — and that neither the partial victory nor the evidence developed during the process was publicized, in an effort to show that Jackson had been wronged by a system that seemed to be designed (post-Deshaun Watson) to resist giving high-end quarterbacks the thing Jackson made it clear to the Ravens he wanted: a fully-guaranteed deal.
It’s also relevant to his current contract, which has three years remaining. Both sides have addressed the possibility of a new deal, and Jackson has every right to once again demand the fully-guaranteed contract he didn’t get the last time.
With Jackson focused on football, it likely means the Ravens and Jackson won’t be talking about an extension until 2026. At that point, he’ll have two years remaining. And his 2027 cap number of $74.5 million will make it very difficult to tag him in 2028, since he’d be entitled to a 20-percent bump over that amount, which equals $89.4 million.
Jackson built leverage for himself the last time around by waiting until his five-year rookie deal expired. If the NFLPA hadn’t hidden the outcome of the collusion case, Jackson may have had enough leverage to rip up the current deal and replace it with five fully-guaranteed years as of 2025.
Is Jackson aware of that? If he is, he’s not saying anything publicly. Privately, he should have tough questions for those who kept knowledge from him that could have resulted in Jackson parlaying the 61-page ruling into a fully-guaranteed deal through 2029.