The Ravens return 19 of 22 starters from the team they fielded in Buffalo six months ago. This is mostly good luck, as the team avoided too many expiring contracts to impact players, but that luck shifts pretty hard in the other direction in 2025 with Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, Tyler Linderbaum, Odafe Oweh, Travis Jones, Ar’Darius Washington, and many others heading into contract years.
All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton will be expecting a new deal sometime soon, as well. While the Ravens will surely be working towards extension offers for many of them, there’s one player they’ve already claimed is at the forefront of their priorities for an extension. 
So many quarterbacks have gotten new deals in the last two years that Lamar Jackson‘s once-record-setting five-year, $260MM extension from 2023 feels like a distant memory. Thanks to recent new deals for Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Brock Purdy, and Josh Allen, Jackson’s formerly league-leading $52MM annual average salary has sunk all the way down to 10th-highest in the NFL. Head coach John Harbaugh indicated at league meetings that Jackson could be back on top soon.
While it may seem counterintuitive to prioritize a Jackson extension when he still has three years remaining on his contract and the Ravens have so many players on contracts that expire sooner, getting Jackson on a new deal could serve a crucial role in helping to team to secure some of his talented teammates long-term. After this season, the final two years of Jackson’s contract have him sporting an untenable cap hit of $74.5MM. In order to help keep some of his teammates in Baltimore, Jackson and the Ravens could pursue an extension in the fashion of the man who beat him out for MVP last year.
Allen signed a six-year, $330MM extension in March despite the fact that his prior deal still had four years remaining. Instead of simply tacking on new years with more money to grant Allen his extension, the Bills essentially scrapped the terms of his original contract, giving their MVP a raise while keeping some flexibility in the team’s salary cap for years to come.
Allen and Buffalo may have paved the way for Jackson and many quarterbacks expecting raises in the future. The Ravens could create $15.8MM of cap space in 2025 with an extension, and scrapping the terms of the original deal could help significantly lower Jackson’s cap hit in 2026 and 2027, as well. The Ravens supposedly always planned to return to the negotiation table before reaching Jackson’s obscene cap hits, and the Bills may have provided them with the perfect solution.
One key point of difference could come in the cash and guarantee structures. Allen and the Bills chose an extremely straightforward method in which Allen’s cash receipts vary relatively little from year to year, ranging from $52.5MM to $58MM. In contrast, Jackson’s current contract saw him receive $80MM in Year 1 and $31.79MM in Year 2. In Allen’s deal, his full guarantees come from a modest signing bonus ($56.75MM), his first- and second-year base salaries, and $34.5MM of his third-year base salary. Jackson pushed hard for a fully guaranteed deal in 2023 but ended up settling for a signing bonus of $72.5MM, his first- and second-year base salaries, and some bonuses in Years 2 and 3.
It’s hard to know just how much the Ravens could follow in Buffalo’s footsteps with a Jackson deal or just how much Jackson is willing to follow in Allen’s. The team may love the structure, but Jackson may want more money up front, like with his last deal. Jackson may also see the value in spreading out his cash flow in order to ensure that the Ravens can continue to surround him with talented players.
The time is right for Baltimore to try to make something happen, before training camp and the preseason take Jackson away from the table. Regardless, they’ll need to get something done in the next nine months if they want to avoid getting stuck with one player taking up a projected 24.26 percent of the team’s salary cap space in 2026.
1 year prove deal in the playoffs or move on. Regular season stats mean nothing.
A one year prove it deal on top of all the contract he still has left?
I’m really curious to see if he would ever leave. Baltimores offense revolves around his skill set more than any other teams would, at least initially.
He’s an exciting player. Puts people in the seats, buying jerseys, and gets the team those juicy TV revenues. I don’t think he has “it” to win them a SB, but he brings in the money and wont be going anywhere.
A team that can win championships with Joe Flacco should be capable of doing the same with Lamar.
It isn’t the team, it’s Lamar.
In every playoff game he just doesnt have that focus and killer instinct. Doesn’t have that determination to make a play when it’s needed and keep the drive alive. Doesn’t have “it”.
he’s lost to Buffalo by a two point conversion (a game Buffalo was favored by 3 in) and was knocked out at the goal line in the other game that was a TD game at the time (a game Buffalo was favored by a TD) against them. Then, he lost to the Chiefs like everyone else not named Tom Brady. Sometimes, I wonder what in the world are you people talking about because you seem to have voices in your head that you listen to to criticize this guy. If he had a cluster of games like he had against the Titans on his resume, I’d see the point, but I’m starting to wonder where all of these criticisms come from.
He played like crap against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. He had two of the Ravens three turnovers to Buffalo last year in postseason but Andrews gets all the heat. He refused to even fly with the team to Cincinatti in another wildcard loss. He had a tough game against the Titans in 2019, and Buffalo in 2021 postseasons. Time to put it together …
Okay, and so did everybody else that year. They had the best defense in the league, and yet it was still a TD loss with one TD taken off the board because of Flowers’ stupid play at the goal line. It’s kind of why they won it all. Joe Burrow played like crap against them the year before, which is why they lost their second half lead. Point is you guys talk like he regularly has meltdowns in the playofs, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I would have hated to see your commentary on Peyton Manning at the same point of his career, or right, I do remember a lot of the same idiotic takes.
I get your points realfootballfan, but Manning was one-and-done in the playoffs too often himself. Not all his fault but he was known as a great regular season QB as well, like Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers.
Jackson nearly had his third MVP award, now its time to take the next step, the same with Josh Allen in Buffalo, who doesnt get nearly enough help from his teammates in the playoffs. Its time for another new QB other than Hurts to win it all. Despite the SB loss, everyone still thinks Mahomes will catch Brady in championships, as if its a foregone conclusion. Its not and hopefully, Buffalo and Ravens fans can get that championship.
Except he hasn’t been stinking up the joint. You’re talking about him like he put a series of playoff games out there like Justin Herbert. He hasn’t even had as bad of a game as Herbert in the playoffs, even the first one against the Chargers. I’d even say he’s not had as bad of a game as Josh Allen had against the Bengals. That’s where I’m pushing back because no QB goes into the playoffs and lights teams up in this day and age. It just doesn’t happen, but at the same time, he hasn’t melted down in these games either outside of the Titan game his first year starting. It’d be like people criticizing Josh Allen because he’s come up short when all of those games against the Chiefs except the first one was a coin flip game that he just came out on the wrong side of the game.
Championships? They won one, and it was almost 15 years ago at this point.
I say give the man what he wants. He is worth the largest contract ANY player has received.
Not looking forward to contract “talks” with Lamar again. It sucked all the life out of football in Baltimore while that went on.
I’d say let Jackson play out his contract and walk away (running QB’s have a limited viable career span) but he’s still only 28. There’s at least one more contract there. Probably best to sign Jackson for a four year extended deal and then trade him away for multiple 1’s in year three.
Remember when the idiots on this site said the last contract was a bad move? Lol.
Some people on here still try to act like he isn’t all that good, let alone a top five quarterback.
They claim he can’t throw still. Laughable.
He will never win a Super Bowl.
Neither will burrow it’s ok. Not everyone does
Josh Allen ain’t rackin’ em up either.
But also all of this narrative stuff is silly. A lot of guys couldn’t win until they did and a lot of the all-time best didn’t win as much as they theoretically should have. Peyton Manning didn’t win a playoff game until his fifth year, and in his 12 years in Indy, he either lost his first playoff game or missed the playoffs eight times.
Yep. I remember people even saying just let him walk and draft Anthony Richardson. I mean they’re the same player. It won’t matter. Oops.
We all know he will never win a SB. Does Baltimore tie itself to this choker?
These QB salaries are out of control.
According to what? Cap is going up; salaries are going up. It’s capitalism 101.