Jalen Hurts got a big new contract but Lamar Jackson could be the biggest winner of Hurts’ groundbreaking deal.
Jackson is in a contract dispute with Baltimore and if the Ravens are wise, they’ll move to strike a deal quickly before other quarterback deals raise Jackson’s price even further.
As The 33rd Team’s Ari Meirov noted, when Jackson was first eligible for an extension, Patrick Mahomes had the highest per-year salary at $45 million.
Jackson revealed last month that Baltimore’s initial offer guaranteed $44.3 million per season over three years.
The Hurts deal gives both Jackson and the Ravens a framework to look to as they try to get a deal done. Cleveland’s fully guaranteed $230 million contract with Deshaun Watson ($46 million per season) remains an outlier and no one should anticipate it being replicated anytime soon.
Still, Jackson should expect to clear the $50-million-per-year mark with his new contract thanks to the Hurts deal, which would be roughly $6 million more per year than he would have received if agreed to that initial offer.
With Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow also eligible for extensions, the price tag for a franchise quarterback isn’t decreasing. Hurts’ contract recalibrates the market and should be the catalyst for the Ravens hammering out a deal with Jackson.
Otherwise, Baltimore will discover today’s price isn’t the same as tomorrow’s.
