For all his superlatives and other-worldly talents, there remain some befuddling mysteries when it comes to Lamar Jackson.
Every season how does he cough up games to vastly inferior opponents, including last year's losses to the Las Vegas Raiders (4-13) and Cleveland Browns (3-14)? Despite comparable rosters and almost parallel regular seasons, how is he only 1-6 against Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs? And, most curiously, how is it that he can't live up to a contract that he himself negotiated?
The two-time MVP is coming off a crazy season in which threw 41 touchdowns to only four interceptions and, yet again, somehow failed to get the Baltimore Ravens to the Super Bowl. Now he's raising eyebrows across the NFL by skipping OTAs at Under Armour Performance Center.
General manager Eric DeCosta revealed last week that discussions have already started about a new Lamar contract, one that would presumably make him the highest-paid player in league history. That title is currently held by the Dallas Cowboys' Dak Prescott at $60 million per season.
Said DeCosta, "I think we’re in the introductory sort of stage of looking at what an extension might look like.”
For now, however, Jackson is playing under a five-year, $260 million deal he signed in 2023. Part of that contract - that Jackson proudly negotiated without an agent - is $750,000 bonuses for each year he attends 80 percent of the team's workouts in Baltimore.
He blew off the bonus last season, and is again this year. Instead of lifting weights with his teammates, Jackson is making a $1.5 million decision to stay in Miami in the offseason.
(Even crazier, if he gets injured away from the Ravens' facility the team may not have to pay his contract at all.)
The point isn't that Jackson is being lazy this offseason and will show up out of shape. Last year proved that theory is nonsense. He knows John Harbaugh. He knows Derrick Henry. He knows Mark Andrews. Maybe a couple of reps with new receiver DeAndre Hopkins could help, but ...
Jackson doesn't have to be in Baltimore. But he should be. To be seen as a visible team leader. And for $1.5 million more reasons.