Lamar Jackson has posed a problem for every NFL team that has played the Baltimore Ravens the past nine years. Now he is the biggest problem the Ravens are perhaps about to face since they arrived in Baltimore in 1996.
Jackson, as everyone understands, must have surgery to repair the battered thumb on his right (throwing) hand that he injured Sunday against the Buffalo Bills — an injury coach Jesse Minter said would land the team’s quarterback on injured reserve and “potentially” threaten his status for the remainder of this season.
That, believe it or not, is the good news.
The bad news is what comes next because that includes the possible departure of a generational player who turned a solid Ravens franchise when he arrived into a playoff contender every game of every season he was healthy and played since 2018.
So here we are: Jackson may have played his final game for the Ravens.
His constant and often losing battle to stay healthy, against a backdrop of a difficult contract and salary cap situation in 2027, could force a divorce between the Ravens and Jackson next offseason.
The Ravens will find themselves in a situation where they must decide to pay a 30-year-old, often-injured, very expensive Lamar Jackson because he’s a difference-maker when healthy?
… Or do they try to trade him – with his permission because he has a no-trade clause – to a team of his choice that is willing to improve instantly?
(Whispers Miami Dolphins, Jackson’s hometown team).
The questions boggle because a two-time MVP is typically a piece of the puzzle for an NFL team and not the puzzle itself that requires a solution.
This crazy situation is, at its root, going to be about money and business and not love or emotion.
Simply:
Jackson is carrying an $84.34 million salary cap charge next year on a team that is estimated to be $45.9 million over the estimated cap. That is not sustainable.
And it wouldn’t be a problem if Jackson were healthy this season, playing at his usual heights, and promising more of the same in the future. The Ravens would then negotiate an extension with Jackson that would lower his cap charge while rewarding him with a lot of new cash.
Except that might not be the view the Ravens can logically share anymore. Their view post-injury that threatens to knock him out of the lineup for 16 of 34 games after this season, is not known. But the club might decide paying Jackson as if a season-crashing injury had not happened might not be the smartest approach.
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The Ravens and Jackson have squared off on the contract front before. The 2023 offseason brought one dramatic moment after another before Jackson and the club agreed to a $230 million deal.
Jackson absolutely expects an extension next offseason because he will not want to play the season on an expiring deal. That is not how business is typically done in the NFL and definitely not with a franchise-type of quarterback.
And did I mention, Jackson expects to be the league’s highest-paid player when he inks his next extension.
All this might be too much for the Ravens who have seen this season that opened with Jackson and much promise sink into an abyss of uncertainty.
Colts coach Shane Steichen on Monday answered a question he himself helped pose after Sunday’s blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars by saying he needed evaluate everyone, including Daniel Jones.
That was understood to mean Jones, a disappointment so far this season, could be benched. But, no.
“Evaluating the tape, looking back at it, some things he could do better, some things that we need to help him with moving forward,” Steichen said. “But I do feel that Daniel gives the best chance to win right now.”
Great. Stop right there.
If the Colts, in garage sale mode after trading Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner, don’t start calling around offering Jones in trade by the Nov. 10 trade deadline, they are totally missing the point of the remainder of their season.
No one in Indy cares if Jones gives the a Colts team already out of significant contention a better chance to win next weekend. But the Minnesota Vikings might care that Jones might help them make the playoffs.
Or even win a championship.
The Colts should be on the phone to the Vikings offering to trade Jones to them and reunite the QB with the coaching staff that wanted to bring him back for 2025 after he spent the latter part of ’24 in their facility.
The Vikings need help. Kyler Murray is struggling with a sore hamstring, he’s already had a concussion earlier this season, and he hasn’t exactly lit any defenses on fire when healthy.
It makes sense for the Vikings to invest, say, a fourth- or fifth-round pick to bring Jones aboard. And the Colts?
Jones won’t be on the Colts in 2028 or 2029, but that mid-round pick might be to give them a better chance to win then.
The Arizona Cardinals made the obvious transition from Jacoby Brissett to Gardner Minshew as their starting quarterback on Monday after the man with the game’s greatest O.K. Corral mustache threw three touchdowns passes to lead a comeback win over the Dallas Cowboys.
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Coach Mike LaFleur not only benched Brissett but demoted him to the No. 3 emergency QB spot behind Minshew and rookie Carson Beck.
That makes Brissett a luxury and someone the Cardinals should be making or taking phone calls about as a possible trade deadline target.
It makes sense for the Cardinals to get something for Brissett and give him a chance to matter on a team where he might be more valued.
He served his purpose in Arizona, it would be wise to turn the page.
