Lamar Jackson returned to practice on Friday morning (Twitter link via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com). It’s a promising sign for the Ravens quarterback, who was absent on Wednesday and Thursday with a back injury.

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Jackson has been dealing with “a little back flare-up,” according to Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Fortunately, it sounds like he’s on track to face the Broncos this week. He’s never missed a game due to injury before, but he’s also taken a ton of tackles in 2021 — 44 hits, more than any other QB this year.

The Ravens, who allowed Jackson to take four sacks on Sunday, will need to fix that going forward. He’s always the lifeblood of the Baltimore offense, but his health is arguably more important than ever with J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards out. Through three games, Jackson leads the team with 251 rushing yards, good for fourth in the entire league.

Tyler Huntley will get the call if Jackson suffers any setbacks. But, as of this moment, it sounds like the 2019 MVP will be ready to face the 3-0 Broncos.

The Ravens and Lamar Jackson are still in active discussions about a contract extension, sources tell ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter. However, no deal has materialized yet as Jackson remains focused on the season ahead.

Jackson does not have an agent representing him, which probably isn’t helping with the pace of negotiations. A deal could be struck during the season, Schefter hears, but that’ll probably happen at a juncture when the quarterback can devote more attention to the talks. Baltimore’s bye week falls on Week 8 this year, so we could see a deal come together in late October.

Bills QB Josh Allen has given the two sides a framework, at least. His six-year extension is worth $258MM with $150MM in overall guarantees and a record $100MM fully guaranteed at signing. Jackson could soon knock him off of his perch. For now, the 24-year-old superstar is due just $1.78MM in base salary this season.

Jackson has said he is not overly concerned if the extension becomes finalized this year or in 2022. Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins played out their low-priced rookie deal fourth years, leading to franchise-tagged seasons. However, other young QBs like Russell Wilson and Ryan Tannehill (2015), Derek Carr(2017), Carson Wentz and Jared Goff (2019), Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson (2020) opted against playing on their rookie pacts beyond Year 3.

Meanwhile, Jackson is all biz and focused on the task at hand. He’ll look to start 2021 with a win against the Raiders later today.

Lamar Jackson‘s decision not to use a traditional agent has made his extension talks with the Ravens one of this year’s top storylines. It is one thing to use this setup to negotiate a draft-slot deal, but hammering out a near-NFL-record extension without an agent veers into new territory.

Previous reports have indicated Jackson and his mother were leading the way in discussing the contract with the Ravens, but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes more parties are involved. Jackson’s mother, Felicia Jones, is not believed to be directly involved in the talks, per Florio. Instead, Jackson and advisers are leading the negotiations.

Still, the 2019 MVP is negotiating a deal expected to surpass $40MM annually without an agent. Although the likes of Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner finalized notable contracts without an agent, with the latter’s $18MM-per-year pact still the NFL’s top off-ball linebacker figure nearly two years later, Jackson going without an NFLPA-certified agent is a bit different. The NFLPA has approached Jackson about this setup, but the fourth-year quarterback has not hired an agent.

The dual-threat quarterback’s atypical skill set will factor into these agent-less discussions; his struggles in three Ravens playoff losses might as well. Jackson’s run-game usage dwarfs the other current top-dollar QBs, creating a potential longevity concern. The Ravens also have him signed for two more seasons, via the fifth-year option. John Harbaugh, however, has assured an extension will come to pass.

Jackson has said he is not overly concerned if the extension becomes finalized this year or in 2022. The 24-year-old superstar is due just $1.78MM in base salary this season. The modern rookie-contract structure has driven many young quarterbacks to sign extensions before their fourth seasons. Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins played out their low-priced fourth years, leading to franchise-tagged seasons, but the rest of the young quarterbacks to sign lucrative re-ups over the past several years — Russell Wilson and Ryan Tannehill (2015), Derek Carr (2017), Carson Wentz and Jared Goff (2019), Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson (2020) — opted against playing on their rookie contracts beyond Year 3.

Given the circumstances, it will be interesting to see the guarantee structure and how this extension will stack up next to the agent-driven accords fellow 2018 first-rounders Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield end up signing. How close the AAV comes to Mahomes’ unusually structured deal will obviously be notable as well.

Just about everybody involved agrees the Ravens and Lamar Jackson are going to get an extension done at some point in the near future. Just recently Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh called it a “done deal” and said Jackson is “going to get paid.”

For his part, the star quarterback has said he doesn’t care whether it gets done this year or next, and all seems well. But the negotiations leading up to this extension are going to be very interesting, in part because Jackson is still operating without an agent, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link via the Pat McAfee show).

Jackson’s mother is his business partner and is serving as his de-facto agent in this process, Rapoport says. They used the same setup to negotiate his rookie deal and that went through without a hitch, although obviously this is a different animal.

Jackson is “seeing the same sort of eyebrows raised from the agent community and from players as well because his mother is doing it,” Rapsheet reports. “The stakes are incredibly high because if you lock yourself into a bad deal you’d be costing yourself tens of millions of dollars.”

Rapoport also notes that the Ravens are often good at getting team-friendly deals done, making this negotiation particularly “fascinating.”

Jackson, and his mother, will surely be looking for a payday in line with the league’s other top passers. Dak Prescott got four-years, $160MM from the Cowboys back in March, which will be an interesting baseline to compare Jackson’s new deal against.

Of course the NFL is different from other leagues, where it’s not just the top-line dollar amount that matters most, but rather the structure of guarantees and other important accounting details. There’s no reason to believe Jackson and his family don’t know what they’re doing, but the unusual setup will ensure his deal is highly scrutinized whenever it comes.

For the time being, Lamar Jackson is working as his own agent. Although the former MVP did not confirm that will remain the case during extension talks, he currently stands to play the lead role in his negotiations. The fourth-year Ravens passer addressed his status Wednesday.

John Harbaugh said earlier this offseason a Jackson extension would commence either this year or next. Because the Ravens picked up Jackson’s fifth-year option, he is under contract through 2022. His timetable still appears fluid.

“I’m not really worried about if it gets done this year or next year,” Jackson said (video link). “We’re going to see. We don’t know yet.”

Jackson’s rookie deal calls for a $1.77MM base salary this season. The 24-year-old superstar confirmed he and GM Eric DeCosta began to discuss his second contract earlier this year. Dak Prescott‘s four-year, $160MM extension figures to be a key benchmark in Jackson’s talks, just as Deshaun Watson‘s four-year, $156MM pact factored into Prescott’s down-to-the-wire negotiations. Patrick Mahomes‘ $45MM-AAV deal — a 10-year re-up — continues to look like an outlier.

Prescott opted to maximize his value, not agreeing to his extension until the franchise tag deadline ahead of his sixth season. The rest of the recent QB draftees to sign lucrative extensions — Mahomes, Watson, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff — opted to lock in big money earlier. Each agreed to deals ahead of their fourth seasons. Jackson and Josh Allen are on the same timetable; Baker Mayfield factors into this picture as well, though the Browns are not believed to have talked an extension yet. Each 2018 first-rounder has become extension-eligible at an interesting time for the quarterback position.

This offseason has brought tremendous QB movement. Five 2020 starters have been traded thus far this year; Watson and Aaron Rodgers are eager to join the carousel. Jackson, however, is not presently interested in exploring his options beyond Maryland.

“I would love to be here forever,” Jackson said. “I love Baltimore. I love the whole organization. I love everybody in the building. Hopefully, we’ll be making something happen pretty soon whenever.”