Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has some lofty goals for the future, especially with a host of new receivers on the team following a busy offseason that saw Baltimore sign Odell Beckham Jr. and Nelson Agholor in free agency and draft Zay Flowers in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Jackson officially signed his five-year, $260 million contract Thursday, setting league records for signing bonus, three-year cash flow and average per season, and now he aims for another big number and sparking a big debate on every sports social media platform.
6,000 yards.
“I want to throw for like 6,000 yards with the weapons we have,” Jackson said, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “I’m not an individual award-type guy or a stat watcher. I just want to do that because no one has ever done it and I feel like we have the weapons to do it.”
Jackson, 26, would need to make a big leap in production to come close to the 6K milestone as he has never passed for more than 3,200 yards in a season. For now, Jackson is glad to have worked out a new deal with the Ravens after 27 months of negotiations.
“I didn’t really care for other teams, I wanted to be here. I want to be a Raven,” Jackson said. “I said something in 2018 and I meant that. I wanted to get this done before my time [is] up and [I] branch off somewhere else. I really want to finish my career here and win a Super Bowl here.”
“I absolutely wanted to get it done because I was just tired of going back and forth about it,” Jackson said. “We’ve been doing it for years, but it was like the time had come. The numbers were right, and we were all satisfied.”
Negotiations were a roller coaster, and it weighed on the franchise.
“There was some dark days,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said. “I mean I’m not going to lie to you and say every day was great, it’s been a long stretch. But we know Lamar, we know the kind of person he is and he’s a phenomenal football player. But you don’t make a phenomenal football player the highest-paid player in the league. You make a phenomenal football player who’s also a phenomenal person the highest-paid player in the league. And so, we had a lot of conviction that this was the right thing to do.”
Now, Jackson is signed through 2027.
“It wasn’t always easy,” DeCosta added. “I’d rather deal with Lamar Jackson the player, I think, but in the end, it was just Lamar and I talking, texting, emailing each other trying to get a deal done.”
Jackson is proud that he got a deal done and is remaining with the Ravens, the only team he has played for.
“That’s just proving myself right,” Jackson said. “It’s about believing in yourself at the end of the day. No matter what I went through, no matter when it looked like my back was against the wall, when people were doubting me even more than before, I just kept my faith with him and now we’re here.”
