FOX Sports personality Colin Cowherd believe the Baltimore Ravens are about to make a huge mistake with the face of their franchise, Lamar Jackson.
Jackson, a two-time MVP, has racked up 22,608 passing yards, 6,522 rushing yards and 222 total touchdowns since being drafted by the Ravens in 2019. Although he's been tremendous on the field, his $74.5 million cap hit for the 2026 season could prevent Baltimore's front office from being aggressive this offseason.
On a recent episode of "The Herd" on FS1, Cowherd declared the Ravens are done being Super Bowl contenders as long as Jackson is taking up a significant amount of their cap space.
"The Ravens are done being a Super Bowl bubble team. There's no possible way with what they're going to pay him," Cowherd said. "His current cap hit is $74 million. Let me give you an idea of what that pays for in Seattle. That would pay for Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori, Grey Zabel and DeMarcus Lawrence. And you'd still have enough money to buy every player a lifetime Starbucks card. The Ravens are out of the Super Bowl discussion with this new contract. They also have to pay their center (Tyler Linderbaum), which matters for a quarterback."
Will a deal get done for the Ravens?
While at the NFL Scouting Combine this week, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta was asked about Jackson's contract situation. He sounds optimistic that a deal will get done.
"Lamar and I have an agreement [that] we handle business kind of in-house internally," DeCosta said, via ESPN. "That worked well for us the last time and we will continue to have that policy moving forward. I have spoken to Lamar about a lot of different things over the last month. He's been very engaged. ... We'll continue those conversations moving forward."
A new deal for Jackson could potentially create $30 million in cap space for the Ravens. That would kick the star quarterback's cap hit down the road.
With free agency set to begin on March 11, the Ravens would benefit from working out a revised deal sooner rather than later.
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