Timing on Lamar Jackson offer sheet would be challenging for Ravens

The Ravens signed Odell Beckham Jr., to a one-year contract April 9, an uncharacteristic but timely move.

What would represent the worst-case scenario in the ongoing contract stalemate between the Ravens and their star quarterback, Lamar Jackson, depends on one’s perspective. However, neither side can be too comfortable with the path the situation appears to be taking.

For Jackson, that’s obvious. He has been able to field contract offers for 2 1/2 weeks, and no suitors have emerged. At last week’s owners’ meetings, most of the teams who were viewed as potential fits for Jackson said they weren’t interested in the Ravens’ disgruntled quarterback. The lack of a known outside market made Jackson’s decision to go public with his trade request look more like an act of desperation than a rebuke of the Ravens.

If another team doesn’t come forward with either a trade offer or an offer sheet for Jackson, he’s going to be faced with an interesting decision: play the year under the $32.4 million franchise tag or sit out the season. That almost certainly is not a situation Jackson wants to confront.

As for the Ravens, one of the positives of using the non-exclusive tag on Jackson was that it had the potential to spur a quick resolution, especially if the quarterback had a cadre of suitors. It hasn’t worked out that way, and the Ravens have been in a virtual holding pattern as a result. They’ve mostly operated in the past couple of weeks like a team trying to preserve salary-cap space in case Jackson signs an offer sheet elsewhere and they have to match.

What Ravens officials discussed outside of Lamar Jackson at owners’ meetings

via @TheAthletic https://t.co/PzGdiAkp2i

— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) March 29, 2023

For much of this process, it felt like a formality that the Ravens would match any offer sheet for Jackson. Moving on from Jackson, a 26-year-old former league MVP, and getting only two first-round picks in return would qualify as selling low.

However, the longer this goes and the more obvious it becomes the Ravens and Jackson are not close to being on the same page, the better the two first-round picks and an immediate injection of $32.4 million in cap space start to look. If team officials believe Jackson legitimately wants out and if trust has eroded on both sides to the point where the relationship is damaged, then letting the quarterback depart via an offer sheet or trade becomes more viable.

But where is the offer sheet going to come from? The Indianapolis Colts seemingly have been the team most willing to explore adding Jackson. Yet team decision-makers have made it known they’d prefer drafting a quarterback. It seems that the Colts will get involved in the Jackson bidding only if they can’t get the rookie quarterback they want.

The Colts have the No. 4 pick in a draft that almost certainly will start with the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans selecting quarterbacks with the No. 1 and No. 2 picks. Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young are widely expected to be the first two quarterbacks off the board. If the Colts are comfortable with either Florida’s Anthony Richardson or Kentucky’s Will Levis, they can stick at No. 4 and are guaranteed to get one of them.

If they have a clear preference, they may have to trade with the Arizona Cardinals, who are not in the quarterback market, to move into the No. 3 slot and take the quarterback they want. The Cardinals, meanwhile, will almost certainly be hearing from QB-needy teams looking to trade ahead of the Colts and pick No. 4.

Where it will get interesting is if the Colts aren’t sold on either Richardson or Levis and are unable to draft the quarterback they want. There probably would be only one remaining play that would allow them to salvage their offseason, and that’s acquiring Jackson. But at that point, would the Ravens even entertain the idea? The timing certainly isn’t in their favor. Any offer sheet after the draft means the Ravens would get the signing team’s 2024 and 2025 first-round picks. That’s not going to help them secure a starting quarterback for the upcoming season.

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Trading Jackson after the draft or letting him leave with an offer sheet would likely mean the Ravens beginning the season with Tyler Huntley as their starting quarterback. That doesn’t necessarily fit with a roster otherwise built to win now, and it would be against everything this front office typically stands for to not do everything it can to field a contending team this year.

This late in the game, though, the options are limited. Beyond agreeing to a long-term contract extension with Jackson in the coming weeks, the Ravens are going to be in a precarious situation. If he doesn’t attract an offer sheet or a suitable trade offer, the Ravens will be left to wonder whether Jackson will play the season on the tag or he’ll opt to sit out. If he does sign an offer sheet, the Ravens will be forced to decide between absorbing a contract they may not like or allowing their starting quarterback to leave without a suitable replacement on the roster.

From the Ravens’ perspective, that would qualify as the worst-case scenario.

10 random thoughts and observations

1. Jackson has been added to a growing list of homegrown Ravens to ask the organization for a trade. That list also includes wide receiver Marquise Brown, tight end Hayden Hurst, offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and safety Chuck Clark. And those are just the ones we know of, as often trade requests don’t get out. For an organization that prides itself on its culture and maintaining a strong relationship with its players, the optics aren’t good.

But rather than drawing any wide-ranging conclusions, it’s probably best to look at each situation individually. The dispute with Jackson is over money. Brown didn’t like his role in Greg Roman’s run-heavy offense. Hurst wanted to be a featured tight end, and that wasn’t going to happen as long as Mark Andrews was around. Brown didn’t want to play right tackle and that’s where he was going to play with the Ravens if Ronnie Stanley was healthy. And Clark was angry that the Ravens opted not to give him a contract extension and instead signed Marcus Williams and drafted Kyle Hamilton. It would feel a bit different if guys were asking out because of problems with the coaching staff or front office or they just didn’t like the team’s culture.

2. Cornerback Darius Slay’s confirmation that he was close to signing with the Ravens before he opted to make things work with the Philadelphia Eagles means two things: 1) The Ravens are willing to sign a player to a significant deal even with Jackson’s situation unsettled; and 2) The Ravens are prioritizing adding a cornerback, which probably isn’t surprising. Time and time again, Baltimore has shown a willingness to spend on defensive backs.

3. Free-agent signings will not count toward the compensatory formula after May 1. That’s an important date to keep in mind when it comes to the Ravens, who undoubtedly would like to preserve the projected future fourth-round pick they are in line to get for the free-agent loss of guard Ben Powers to the Denver Broncos. The signing of wide receiver Nelson Agholor nullified a potential sixth-round pick for the loss of tight end Josh Oliver and left the Ravens at plus-one in the compensatory count. A signing of significance over the next few weeks could wipe out the Powers pick, too.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the Ravens won’t be signing any true unrestricted free agents until after May 1. However, it does mean that the loss of a potential fourth-round pick would be weighed heavily in a decision about a signing. Another of the Ravens’ true unrestricted free agents, such as Marcus Peters and Demarcus Robinson, signing elsewhere this month would impact the situation.

4. Broncos head coach Sean Payton told the NFL Network on the eve of last week’s owners’ meetings that wide receivers Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton would not be traded. Jeudy always felt like an unrealistic acquisition for the Ravens because the reported asking price was a first-round pick or something similar. However, Sutton seemed like a logical target as a guy who wouldn’t cost the Ravens a first- or future second-round pick, and as someone who would be a good fit football-wise. He wouldn’t be the first player traded after his head coach said he wouldn’t be on the move, but Payton’s comments served as a reminder of how difficult it has been for the Ravens to bring in a quality veteran No. 1 or 2 receiver. If the Ravens don’t land Odell Beckham Jr. — and there are legitimate questions about both his health and his desire to play in Baltimore — then where do they turn? You could say there will be additional opportunities to add one after the draft and you might be right, but given the Ravens’ history at the position, that’s a tough sell.

5. The Ravens’ pre-draft luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday. General manager Eric DeCosta and company almost certainly will say they’re satisfied with five picks and don’t feel any pressure to add more, but I’m not sure anybody is buying that. In fact, the odds are probably better when they’re on the clock at No. 22 that they’ll trade back than they are that they’ll make a pick. Of course, the phone has to ring. There have been plenty of instances in the past where the Ravens have wanted to trade back for more picks, but they didn’t get any offers.

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6. James Urban, formerly the team’s quarterbacks coach, and Craig Ver Steeg, who had been the running backs coach, have been reassigned to senior football analyst/game-planning roles, per the coaching page on the team’s website. Keith Williams, whose title had been pass game specialist, is now the assistant wide receivers coach. The Ravens have also added Danny Breyer, a run game specialist with the Atlanta Falcons last year, as an offensive quality control coach. Breyer was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff in 2017 and ’18 with Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken. It isn’t clear whether John Harbaugh will make any more hires, but his staff has already undergone significant change. The group of outside additions includes Monken, Willie Taggart (running backs), Greg Lewis (wide receivers), Chuck Smith (outside linebackers), Dennard Wilson (defensive backs) and Breyer. Tee Martin (quarterbacks), Urban, Ver Steeg, Williams and Scott Elliott (strength and conditioning coordinator) have all been moved into different roles. The coaches no longer with the organization are Roman (offensive coordinator), Rob Leonard (outside linebackers), D’Anton Lynn (safeties), Jason Brooks (analyst), Jay Peterson (defensive assistant), Ryan Osborn (defensive assistant) and Steve Saunders (head strength and conditioning).

7. Former Ravens tight end Nick Boyle was at the University of Maryland pro day last week, working out as a long snapper. This is a transition that Boyle has been thinking about since last season, when he started doing some snapping in practice. With Nick Moore dealing with a family matter in the days leading up to the Week 18 regular-season finale in Cincinnati, Boyle was the Ravens’ contingency plan at long snapper. Moore, however, returned in time for the game.

An unexpected participant at #Terps Pro Day: Nick Boyle.

The former #Ravens tight end trying to show his snapping skills. pic.twitter.com/7Y2rlpaCmF

— Shawn Stepner (@StepnerWMAR) March 29, 2023

Boyle snapped in high school, and it helped land him a college scholarship. Ex-Delaware coach K.C. Keeler wasn’t completely sold on Boyle as a tight end, but at the very least, he thought that Boyle would justify his scholarship by long-snapping. He did more than that and went on to become one of the top blocking tight ends in the NFL. It’s a shame the major left knee injury he suffered in November 2020 pretty much cost him a chunk of the prime of his career. To even come back from the damage he sustained in that knee and play was pretty miraculous. That Boyle, who recently turned 30, is trying to find a way to stick in the NFL says all you need to know about his character and how much he loves the game.

8. I figured there was at least a chance that Calais Campbell would return to Baltimore on a reduced deal after the Ravens released him last month. However, seeing the reports that the Falcons signed him to a one-year, $7 million deal that could grow to $9 million with incentives, it’s clear that Campbell would have had to leave a ton of money on the table to return. That’s quite a deal for a player who will be 37 when the 2023 regular season begins.

9. Harbaugh mentioned Patrick Mekari as being in the mix to start at left guard. As a veteran, Mekari has earned that opportunity. However, put me in the camp of those who believe Mekari is too valuable to the team in a swing tackle/sixth offensive lineman role. It seems odd to prioritize that over the starting left guard spot, but it’s not that simple. The Ravens have two guys who have started games at left guard on their roster (Ben Cleveland and John Simpson), and they’ll probably draft a guard, too. What they don’t have is more than one guy who can enter a game at any of the five O-line positions and hold his own. That’s an extremely valuable commodity, and the Ravens shouldn’t be in any rush to move Mekari out of that role. Plus, Mekari tends to get a little banged up through the course of the season, and I’m not sure expecting him to start 17 games inside is realistic.

10. The Stetson Bennett connection is easy to make with Monken, the former offensive coordinator at Georgia, now on Harbaugh’s staff. But the Ravens did their homework on a number of quarterbacks in this class and should have a few options on Day 3 of the draft. Stanford’s Tanner McKee, Fresno State’s Jake Haener, Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell and Houston’s Clayton Tune are all developmental quarterbacks projected to go either late on Day 2 or on Day 3. With the uncertainty surrounding Jackson, and Huntley eligible to hit unrestricted free agency next offseason, this feels like a good year to bring in a young quarterback. Of course, with only five picks, DeCosta will have to decide whether drafting a quarterback is more of a luxury than a necessity.

(Photo of Lamar Jackson: Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)