The Ravens have certainly had a busy offseason to start off the 2026 season so far, and some aspects of their offseason have been more successful than others. The franchise felt a need to reset their coaching staff and landed a promising, young defensive-minded coach much like the Super Bowl-winning one they let leave two years ago. The team saw holes on defense and the offensive line and added some strong options in free agency.
On the flip side of things, the expediency with which John Harbaugh found a new job set high expectations for the team that was willing to let him go. Additionally, a number of free agents priced themselves way out of Baltimore, while former staffers in both New York and Los Angeles poached away several other names that many expected to return. But the single biggest failure of the Ravens’ 2026 offseason so far, as laid out by Sports Illustrated’s Jason La Canfora, is the team’s inability to come to an agreement with star quarterback Lamar Jackson on a new, record-setting extension.
When the Ravens finally landed Jackson to his first record-setting extension in 2023, many expected that the star dual-threat passer would never even sniff the final years of his contract. With how quickly the quarterback market constantly readjusts with inflation, it was thought that it would be insulting if the Ravens didn’t see fit to make sure their best player remained in line with the rising market periodically. Especially when teams like the Chiefs and Bills had demonstrated some unique ways to accomplish this for everyone to see, Baltimore was sure to follow suit.
Instead, the issue has frequently been pushed by one party or the other to the back burner. What’s worse, this is not new for the Ravens, who similarly squeezed every ounce of value out of Jackson’s rookie deal even after seeing him win an MVP award in his second season with Marquise Brown, Willie Snead, Seth Roberts, and Miles Boykin leading his receivers room. According to La Canfora, “there isn’t anyone in the industry” who believes Jackson will be a Raven after this year if the team can’t extend him by the start of the season, and after the team restructured his deal, there’s belief that he holds more leverage than ever.
La Canfora also commented on the recent reports that Jackson was offered fully guaranteed three-year deals back when he was seeking his first extended contract. He asserted that not all fully guaranteed deals are equal, focusing on some of the language that was crucial to Jackson in those negotiations. Jackson was seeking a five-year, fully guaranteed deal, something the Ravens did not intend to offer. Instead, they made their three-year offers in the range of $50MM to $55MM per year.
While that still seems like a decent offer, La Canfora reports that it didn’t come with the “no trade” and “no future franchise tag” clauses that Jackson needed to see. He offers that teams only tend to include language like that when the contract guarantees long-term rights to the player’s services, and with Jackson’s insistence on a fully guaranteed deal, a long-term offer wasn’t coming. It became clear that those clauses were more important to him than the guarantees when he eventually agreed to his record-setting extension without full guarantees but with those clauses.
Those clauses essentially guaranteed that, no matter what, Jackson would be hitting the open market again just as he turned 30 — that is, unless he were to receive an extension before then. Jackson had some notion of where the big money would be and put himself in position to cash in at the best moments. The Ravens have had plenty of opportunities over the years to stretch a couple dollars now to avoid even bigger costs down the road, but they’ve continuously come up short, unable to meet Jackson’s demands. Now, they may be in a race against the clock to get a deal done before the start of the season or risk having to reset at quarterback just as they did at head coach. They saw how quickly Harbaugh went.
Jason LaConfora is a hack emotionally involved and an all around annoying reporter.everthing he reports it’s biased, anti owner anti team and pro player .Be better nfltr
Let him walk. He’s not winning you the big game and he’s all down hill from here as he ages. A regular season MVP means nothing, and he’s proven time and time again in big games he flops.
Good. Pack sand to that GM
This was covered ad nauseum in the media toward the end of his rookie contract. His agent is his mother. The team offered him a veteran compensation deal after year two.
The offer was made in a way not unlike how the Eagles put Hurts on a veteran deal after his first SB in year two of his rookie deal.
Jackson chose to stay on his rookie deal so as to be hitting the open market at times he felt were to his advantage. in doing so, he has already lost two seasons at veteran pay scales. All of this was by his choice.
La Con Fraud is the biggest loser in Baltimore. He got FIRED from CBS and then 105.7 the Fan, because he made up stories, rumors and sources. Nobody in any front office will talk to him. He burned every bridge he ever had. SportsBoom and SI are a joke just like he is.
Right. Why the hell does this site seem to use everything this guy says as if it holds any weight?
Same reason Diana had a job.
RB’s have short careers, so do running QB’s. He looked bad last season.
I think the Ravens FO is smart enough to know the pluses and minuses of a new Lamar contract better than LaConfora who’s seemingly made it his mission to criticize Baltimore sports teams’ brass. Move on…
I don’t think they should give him a new deal, he’s gonna start missing more time. I can’t imagine them picking a new quarterback this year, but they should next year. I just can’t believe he thinks he has the leverage to expect a new deal after throwing for 2,500 yards. If this weren’t such a weak QB class I’d say go get one this year.
They already proved this team can win with Huntley, and they are paying him quite a bit to be the backup. The issue with Lamar’s contract is the salary cap hit which they restructured, but will be a massive hit over the last portion of his current contract. I am sure the Ravens want to work something out where it might in reality be a one year deal where they can cut him loose and not owe him a ton of money still, or kill the cap with dead money. Lamar, of course, is going to want as many years and as much guaranteed money as he can get. I don’t know what the Ravens see that most others don’t. He’s getting fragile, he’s slowing down, he’s not an accurate passer, he’s not a leader unless he gets everything his way, he throws temper tantrums, and time after time he loses big games.
I don’t care what Lamar does during the regular season. If he never wins a Super Bow while in Baltimorel, Joe Flacco will be the GOAT QB in Baltimore, along with his historic playoff run, and his Super Bowl MVP award.
JLC is an angry little man who has made hating on the Orioles and Ravens his whole persona. Anyone quoting him is as big an idiot as he is.