Lamar Jackson wants contract talks over by Week 1

The 2022 NFL season is just around the corner now, and the biggest Baltimore Ravens storyline remains the team’s ongoing contract negotiations with quarterback Lamar Jackson.

During Saturday’s press conference following practice, Jackson was once again asked questions about his contract. While he didn’t give any updates on the state of the negotiations, Jackson made it clear that a deadline is approaching for when talks will come to a pause.

When asked if he had a hard deadline in mind for when he would put contract discussions aside, Jackson said, “Yeah, we coming up to it.”

Jackson was then asked if it was fair to say that he wanted the contract done or not done by Week 1 of the regular season. “Yeah, for sure,” Jackson said.

The 2019 unanimous MVP is currently set to play the season under his fifth-year option, with a cap hit of $23.016 million. Extending Jackson now could help lower that number for this season, thus opening up the possibility for more moves to be made. General Manager Eric DeCosta is no stranger to notable mid-season trades.

With how tight-lipped both parties of the ongoing negotiations have been, it’s unclear how much Jackson’s asking price is. Whether he wants to top the quarterback market or have a fully guaranteed deal — like the Cleveland Browns gave to Deshaun Watson — is not known.

Kyler Murray was the latest star quarterback to receive a deal. The Arizona Cardinals extended the former No. 1 overall pick to a five-year, $230.5 million contract with $160 million guaranteed.