Due to the injury risk no player, not even Mahomes is worth a fully guaranteed contract.

I don't know what you do about Lamar Jackson. Can you make it through Mahomes - Burrow - Allen (and even Rodgers - Lawrence) to make it to the Super Bowl with him? I don't think you can, but are you really finding someone better? Probably not. Damned if you, damned if you don't.

Grab a high school coach within a 15 mile radius to design an offense for Lamar.

I’m with this guy. 4th in QB EPA since 2018.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2023/3...patriots-colts

Meanwhile, Watson, WalRuss, and Wentz get traded for one or more firsts.

Yea, it's that the entire NFL doesn't know what they're doing, not the fact that Lamar has no agent to go with unrealistic contract demands :rolleyes:

Hot take: coaches and GM’s are seeing teams like the Colts, Broncos and Browns getting killed by trading valuable assets and paying these guys on top of that and are either old or don’t have the skill set and it’s not worked so they don’t wanna do it anymore.

At least with a draft pick or cheaper vet (Geno, Heinicke) you aren’t paying a ton of money.

I'm not sure that I can really relate to any of this; the amount of money, even if it's 'only' $30,000,000 per year is something that I can't really comprehend. And to get upset because you aren't being treated 'fairly'? Geez, you are playing a game and most likely, been treated like royalty your entire life. Maybe that's part of the issue, most of these people have no idea what it's like to work a low end job and scrape for money to put food on the table.

Seems like poor reflection on society; that's a topic for a different forum...

"Lamar Jackson isn't a moron" is a weird ****ing hill to die on man.
There's obviously an adequate sample size to prove he is indeed an idiot, but you do you!

A lot of these guys grew up dirt poor and in living situations tha the "working man" doesn't even understand.

A of NFL players dream their entire childhood about making it big and escaping poverty and violence.

There's more to it than just your dollar-variety greed.

I never said he wasn't a moron. In fact, I said "he's a lovable goof" and "his idiocy isn't hurting anyone but himself" but go off.

So the tag number is like $32 million, right? And thus far he's giving little indication he's willing to sign the tender.

But what if he told Baltimore he'd take 1 yr/$40 million? Would Baltimore do it? Sure, it's $8 million north of the tag figure, but it gets him on the field and there's no long-term risk.

For Lamar he has a chance to go out there and put up a better platform season then enter the market in a year that is coming OFF the correction you're clearly seeing from teams this season.

Additionally, it sets a baseline at $40 million for him next season so the tag figure for him would be, what, $48 million? It might be prohibitive enough to keep the tag off him. It would also put $40 million in his pocket.

Wouldn't that just be the best option for both parties at this point?

To my understanding the Ravens can offer additional money while Lamar is on the tag, they don't even need a new 1 year deal.

So yeah, Lamar won't play on $32M. The Ravens will surely sweeten the honey pot to get him into the $40-$45M range so he doesn't hold out.

He can't 'hold out' per se - he hasn't signed the tender. They need to encourage him to do so. And throwing money at him may be the only way to do it in a way that doesn't hamstring them long term.

But ultimately I think they really want to move on from him. And if they give him $40 million I think their ability to tag and trade him next year would vanish. So for that one season, they're using $40 million in cap space (that can't roll over now) and effectively wrecking his trade value.

It would be a VERY short term move so they may not be willing to do so either.

I think the savvy play at this point is to really put on a press to try to get that 4th overall from Indy. Just the 4th overall - give up on this 2 first rounders shit because you're not getting that. Or at the very least if you do, it'll be after the draft. Is it worth going from the 4th overall pick in 2023 to maybe the 12th overall in 2024 and 2025? Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse.

The pick charts say it isn't. And frankly it wouldn't be close.

So if they can get Indy to blink and offer that 1.4 - take it and be done with all this.

Idk man, Deshaun Watson went for 3 1sts, a 3rd and a 4th.

Tater Wilson went for 2 1sts, a 2nd, 3rd, 5th and some players.

And both of those guys got new expensive contracts too.

I don't think a single 1st round pick would be fair market value. Ravens would come away looking like chumps for that.

If Mahomes was a completely FA:

Which would you prefer?

Mahomes for five years fully guaranteed at 300 million?

Some routine QB and routine contract take your pick Mac Jones to Derek Carr?

Or say you have the fifth overall pick in the draft?*


*But you can try and trade up.