Cleveland Browns: Jimmy Haslam may impact Lamar Jackson’s future

How can Lamar negotiate without an agent?

The Jackson negotiation will be unique because he does not have an agent. If there are any young athletes reading this article, please don’t do what Lamar Jackson is doing and self-represent yourself.

This author loves Jackson as a player, advocated him as a first-round pick from the get-go, and called him the greatest dual-threat quarterback in NFL history as a rookie — and did so in print. So this is not a knock on Jackson, but being a professional agent and contract negotiator is not easy.

A tough negotiation means both sides are just at the point of walking away — and often at several points during the negotiations — until a compromise is finally reached. Neither side gets everything that they want. You’re probably going to wind up hating your employer if you negotiate your own deal. This is a very bad idea and is one reason why, standing alone, a long-term deal may be a terrible financial decision for all concerned.

By the same token, the thought that Josh Allen has a contract extension and Lamar Jackson has nothing should be intolerable to a professional agent. Put it this way, if Jackson were paying an agent, and Jackson’s deal is more than a year later than Allen’s, then Jackson’s agent should be fired.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti seems to indicate that Jackson is his own worst enemy in this regard. Bisciotti says that the team is willing to come to the negotiating table but Jackson seems to be reluctant, perhaps wishing to wait until after he wins the Super Bowl. That, of course, is the way an athlete thinks, rather than an agent. It’s more evidence that Jackson the player needs to fire Jackson the agent.

Injury risk is a reason why Jackson should seek an extension sooner rather than later. Jackson takes a pounding like no other quarterback, and for that reason, it might reduce his value lower than Josh Allen’s. Hopefully, Jackson’s buddy Mayfield has sold him a decent insurance policy. But to have no contract at all should be intolerable. A good agent would have worked something out.

We just do not know what will happen with the athlete acting as his own agent. It might go smoothly, with the Ravens getting a reasonably fair deal. Or they might decide to use the Franchise Tag method for 2023, which will cost them upwards of $30 million and no discount.

The mixed signals from the Ravens are as follows:  first, they love Lamar Jackson.  Second, they love reality-based fair deals as they continue to evolve a passing offense.

That would put them in conflict with the pioneering methods of Jimmy Haslam III, who seems to believe you can win by making a great quarterback happy at any price.