March 27th, 2023: A day that will live in infamy among Ravens fans.
Lamar Jackson's message to fans, letting them know he requested a trade on March 2. pic.twitter.com/D396y1qhMQ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 27, 2023
Head Coach John Harbaugh was scheduled for media availability at 10:45 a.m., and I was fully expecting his appearance to be a whole lot of nothing. In a sense, it was, as not much in the way of news was revealed by the coach himself.
Coach Harbaugh on Lamar Jackson: pic.twitter.com/5db148TdeA
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) March 27, 2023
In another sense, everything is different today. Lamar Jackson’s conveniently timed Twitter post…
Lamar’s stance and the Ravens’ stance at exactly the same time 🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/QpheJjDoMo
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 27, 2023
…announcing publicly that he requested a trade, created a firestorm around NFL media. The situation (read: standoff) between the team and Lamar remains unchanged, but the perception around it is completely different now. For the first time since this saga began over a year ago, one of the parties involved has discussed real, actual details of the negotiation. It feels like some of the guesswork has finally been taken out of this whole quagmire, but now it just means more specific questions and very few answers.
Is the devil we know going to be any better than the devil we don’t?
A week ago, I postulated that the negative sentiment surrounding the team was bad enough with the wide receiver room but had the capacity to get significantly worse if the Ravens had to figure out the QB position on top of it. Ladies and gentlemen, take a good look around and tell me this isn’t a vastly worse feeling than it was a week ago.
Every single person involved in this debacle looks bad as a result. The organization absolutely did the right thing by not folding to a fully guaranteed deal, but if Lamar really did approach them with a trade request, what’s the endgame by not honoring it? Wait for the trade request to go public and watch his potential return value plummet by the day? Wait for him to hold out and punt next season? Drag your feet until after the draft when a team like the Colts could really screw you on the value?
Colts GM Chris Ballard, via @zkeefer, on Lamar Jackson: "Anytime a special player is available–which he is—you gotta do the work. I'm not gonna get into deep discussions on where it's at, what we're doing or might do, but he's a really special player."
How it'd work for Indy 👇 https://t.co/l6rtmNEayj
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 27, 2023
Meanwhile, in his announcement, Lamar cited the request as a business decision. At the end of the day, this could all very well be posturing for the sake of trying to get a contract done, as Ian Rapaport theorized…
From NFL Now: While the Lamar Jackson trade request has been in, sources say he was actively negotiating with the #Ravens as recently as last week. pic.twitter.com/W0OadSUsz9
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 27, 2023
…but the team has already been held hostage by this negotiation all offseason. It doesn’t put any shine on Lamar’s name that, at a time when no other team has tendered the offer he wanted, he chose to ambush his head coach during a press conference by announcing his trade request. He hasn’t accepted a contract that would allow the cap space to improve the existing team, and without tangible evidence that a team is willing to match what he wants, the perception becomes that he’s placing his own wants above team success. Without a contract at the end of the day, Lamar may feel that he doesn’t owe the rest of the team anything, but at a time when he’s actively trying to drum up interest from other teams, the perception that you’re not a team-minded guy can’t be good for the brand.
Harbaugh: “Lamar’s handled it with class.”
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) March 27, 2023
Has he, Coach?
I probably would have agreed up until yesterday, but I can’t say the same today. I know that a big part of Coach Harbaugh’s job is to be a public-facing figure for the team, and I don’t envy him for what happened yesterday. Like it or not, as well as he tried to handle that situation on the fly, he ends up looking bad in this thing, too. An inability or unwillingness to cut bait on figures like Steve Saunders and Greg Roman have soured feelings around The Castle for too long, and one can’t help but wonder how much their presence and the lack of success that followed played into this situation.
By my count, Harbaugh wasn’t asked a single question related to a subject other than Lamar for 18 minutes. ESPN’s Jamison Hensley counted 32 Lamar-related questions. And the worst part of this is: no one knows where the franchise goes from here. Not Lamar, not Coach Harbaugh, not Eric DeCosta and the front office staff, not Steve Bisciotti, not Poe, NO ONE. Anyone who tells you anything to the contrary, including anyone I mentioned above, is lying.
HC John Harbaugh says the Lamar Jackson situation is a “monetary” thing and that it will be figured out.
— Ravens Nation LIVE (@LIVERavenNation) March 27, 2023
Ironically, before Twitter exploded yesterday, I was preparing to pen a piece about where the Ravens were this time last year. Following the post-season press conference in February of 2022 when Harbs announced that the plan was for Greg Roman to return at OC, I remarked that it felt like even the adults in the room didn’t have the answers.
Will the adults in the room please stand up?
10 Responses
I don’t think anyone looks bad but Lamar Jackson. The RAVENS have done everything they can to extend a fair offer. He believes he has more value. So EDC said show me that value. LJ has no market just like on draft night. LJ has now bitten the hand that feeds him. So if you think the FO looks bad then please explain how? Because I don’t see anything the ravens could have done any better and I don’t see anyone else rushing out to sign him to a deal. In the end, Lamar has stepped on the head of his pecker and now it’s time to cut it off. When you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Tell Lamar ‘ouch my knee hurts’ Jackson to go sell his routine somewhere else.
Well said and true.
With this circus getting crazier by the day, what organization would be confident enough in trading for LJ when the only way LJ negotiates is here is my demand “take it or leave it”. Whatever happens the talking head aka ex players will always be on the side of the player that is how they make their living.
Harbaugh is either in denial, delusional or…….both!
Did you expect Harbs to say in reality we really don’t want Lamar and would love to get two 1st round picks for him?
No, but I didn’t exact him to dignify Lamar’s behavior as “handled it with class”, either!
Yeah but they may have to deal with Lamar for another year as hard to believe as that is.
I almost threw up on my shirt …
Used to love Lamar and his game. Now, I’m rooting for him to go and I’ll be rooting against him and his team wherever he goes.
Absolutely clueless the way he and his “entire” team has handled this.
I think Lamar wants out specifically because of the Greg Roman, WR and Steve Saunders situations. I would. The Ravens totally failed at developing Lamar’s passing game.