The Baltimore Blunder

Ever since Lamar Jackson stepped on a football field, he has played like a star. In 2014, Lamar was named the Lou Groza Palm Beach Country High School Player of the year for his outstanding play. During his collegiate career he won numerous awards, most importantly the Heisman trophy in 2016 as a sophomore. The Louisville Cardinals correctly honored him by retiring the number 8, but his NFL team refuses to honor him in any way.

Lamar Jackson is already the greatest QB in Ravens history and debatably the greatest dual threat QB  of all time. He owns the record of the most rushing yards by a QB in a season along with the most 100 yard rushing games as a QB. Looking at these stats you would assume any NFL team would do whatever they can to have Lamar as their QB but, apparently the Ravens do not.

There are numerous reports suggesting that the Ravens have offered Lamar different contracts with a lot of 0’s, but there’s one issue with them. Not enough guaranteed money. As I was listening to Fox Sports Radio-Madison I heard that Lamar was offered 175million semi-guaranteed. They went on to explain that this money is guaranteed for injury, but not if he gets cut. This is the dumbest contract ever. Yes, he still gets paid if a hammy takes him out for 3-4 weeks, but if he tears his ACL or has a string of concussions the ravens can just cut him and not pay? I’m not exactly sure that this is how it would work, but If it is I hate it. Your star QB puts asses in seats, he wins games, and is your entire offense. PAY THE MAN

If I am Lamar Jackson, I would leave the Ravens in a heartbeat. Looking around the league there are many great QBs, many if which are going to be paid contracts similar to what the Ravens should’ve paid Lamar. In my opinion, a superstar QB should be given a blank check. People can argue “An expensive quarterback eats up too much cap space”. I would counter with the last two Super Bowl winners being Matt Stafford and Patrick Mahomes! To further this, I believe you need an elite QB to win the super bowl. In the last 9 Super Bowls, the winning quarterbacks were Peyton Manning, Tom Brady(x4), Patrick Mahomes(x2), Matt Stafford, and Nick Foles. Excluding Nick Foles, all the QBs on this list have HOF resumes. Lamar Jackson might go down as the greatest rushing QB of all time, and he can throw a pretty spiral as well. Why the Ravens are throwing away a chance for a Super Bowl baffles me. If I were the Ravens, I would’ve given Lamar a blank check.

Just as other teams paid their star quarterbacks, they also helped them succeed. Look at the jump Josh Allen made once he was given Stefon Diggs, and the jump Tua made once he was given Tyreek Hill. Who is Lamar’s WR1? The answer would be Rashod Bateman. (I do feel bad for Bateman as he has caught tons of strays in the Lamar debacle, yet I think he is a pretty good WR) The Ravens went out of their way to trade Marquise Brown to empty the wide receiver room. The running backs don’t make it better, all his running backs get hurt and he’s left to run around in the pocket or hand it to 29-year-old Kenyan Drake. Some critics claim Lamar is always hurt. The last couple seasons he has missed games to injury, but so has the entire Ravens team. The Ravens should internally solve this injury issue so they keep their stars healthy.

As a Lamar fan I hope he is traded. As a Packer fan I hope it is to an AFC team. My favorite option is to the Patriots. I think Lamar and Belicheck would be awesome to watch and it would awesome to watch Mac Jones cry on the bench or cry because he has to play in Baltimore. I hope this is sorted out before the start of the NFL season because I love Lamar and the league is always better with MVP players on the field.