 Is anybody or should anybody really be surprised? Team Keep It Clean, what's going on? I hope y'all are doing real good today. I'm not, there had been a little bit of uproar in the airwaves about this article that Jameson Hensley wrote and an excerpt from that article that talked about how it's expected that Lamar Jackson, when his deal does come, whenever that day happens, I personally don't anticipate it to be this year, but we'll see. But when that deal does happen, that he would be expected to get over 40 mil per year. And I was thinking, okay, yeah, who thought it would be any different? But let's read the part of the article and then we'll break it down. It says, those in league circles expect Jackson's payout to exceed $40 million per season, which would make him among the three highest paid quarterbacks. It'll be interesting to see if Jackson can surpass Josh Allen's deal, which is 43 mil per season, two ranked second behind me Mahomes, which is 45 mil per season. The other issue is whether Jackson's deal will be a shorter term extension like Dak Prescott's, which is four years, or a longer term extension like Josh Allen's, which is six years. So I feel like that would be a bigger, not even necessarily a bigger question, but a bigger concern of the length of the deal rather than the average per year. Because shouldn't this have been a given? I feel like this should have been a given to like everybody that Jackson was gonna get at least 40 mil per year, maybe more, maybe 41, maybe 42, maybe 43, but he was definitely gonna get more than 40 mil per year. I'm shocked that anybody may have thought that he may receive less. Like, no, no. NFL stands for not for long. So when players try to maximize their earnings, try to maximize their contracts, I got no problem with that at all, at all. And I know so many Ravens fans have been like, oh, we hope Lamar takes a cheap, a team-friendly deal. We hope Lamar takes less on the deal so the Ravens can really build around them. Well, besides this year, because granted, this year, minus how they handled the Orlando Brown Jr. situation, because I felt like that could have been handled a lot better as far as, okay, if you're gonna trade them, let's really get an adequate replacement. Like, let's get quality over quantity. But this year was probably the best Ravens roster that they've had ever since Lamar's been here. This has probably been the best one and it all went to shambles because of injury, all of it. But for Lamar Jackson, for him to take less on a deal now, if he takes less on, this is one of the reasons why I would not agree with him taking less on a deal. If he takes less on a deal now, he's gonna be taking less on deals forever. He's going to be taking less on contracts forever. If you, when it's your time, it's your time to get paid, it's your time to get your breader and you take less, they're gonna be like, oh, okay, next time he'll take less too. Oh, and the next time, yeah, he'll take less too. So no, you can't take less. You cannot take less. And just because whenever he does, again, I don't think it's gonna be this season, but hey, things could change, but we'll see. But for when that time comes, when Lamar Jackson gets his bread, gets his long-term contract, it will not eliminate the team from building around him. It'll change some stuff, but it does not mean, it will not mean, oh man, well, since we paid Lamar Jackson, we can't do anything now. We can't sign anybody, we can't build a roster, we can't build a squat, we just can't do it. Did you not see the chiefs and the team that they assembled? And they got Tyreek Hill is not on a rookie contract. Travis Kelsey is not on a rookie contract. Joe Thunny is not on a rookie contract. They even tried to get Trent Williams. Just because Lamar Jackson gets paid will not mean that the team can't do anything around him. The salary cap will continue to increase. There will be new TV deals. NFL, again, they're gonna get more money and salary cap is gonna go higher. So again, when he does get his deal, it will change some things, but it will not stop the show. And with Patrick Mahon, his cap is getting ready to increase by a fat amount. But still, even when you sign them to an extension, especially in that first year, when you sign them to an extension, because the earlier, the lower that cap it is. So you'll still have plenty of opportunities to do your thing. Look at Josh Allen with the bills. I would say they certainly had a nice squat. Like, man, look at that Prescott and the Cowboys. Like, it does not stop the show just because your quarterback gets paid. Now, there's gonna, of course, be the argument over what is Lamar Jackson worth. What is he worth to these Baltimore Ravens? Is he even worth 40 mil per season? I saw somebody in the comments section say, oh, man, Lamar Jackson, he won top three money and he not even a top 12 for it. He won top three money and he not even a top 12 quarterback. I was like, oh, yuck. What? What? This dude, his value to this team alone is priceless. It is priceless. And I don't care if you like Lamar, if you don't like Lamar, let the number speak for themselves. Because so many people, again, they still, they keep on saying, oh, man, Lamar Jackson keeps regressing. He regressed this year. Oh, man, he took such a step back. Why would you pay that guy? Some people even been saying Ravens need to move on. I'm like, what? Did you not see what the Ravens were without one Lamar Jackson? Did some of y'all forget? Because sometimes it seems like, it seems like a lot of people forget. And I know recency bias is a real thing. And it can impact people like crazy because you're seeing Patrick Mahon, you're seeing Joe Burrow, you're seeing Matt Stafford, you're seeing Jimmy Gurrah. But you're seeing all these other quarterbacks and you saw a lot more throughout the end of the regular season and Lamar Jackson wasn't playing. You see the playoffs and you see them playing in the postseason but Lamar Jackson hasn't been playing. So a lot of people forget. You forgot about Lamar Jackson? It's like, oh, not me though. And I know a lot of y'all didn't forget either. And Ravens fans, they certainly, they can't forget about Lamar Jackson because you saw what happened when he wasn't in. You saw what happened in all these close games when he wasn't in. When he wasn't in, then the Ravens didn't win. Simple as that. When you wanna assess how much Lamar Jackson is worth to the Baltimore Ravens, just use that phrase. When Lamar isn't in, Ravens don't win. Simple as that. So whenever you're thinking, oh man, should the Ravens pay Lamar Jackson? Oh, is he worth it? Oh, should the Raven sign him to a long-term deal? If Lamar's not in, the Ravens do not win. Simple as that. And again, just gotta give another reminder, so many people, when it came to G-Row, when it came to Wink, when it came to Harbaugh, so many people like, oh man, how could some of y'all want those guys gone? How could you want Harbs gone? How could you want Wink gone? How could you want G-Row gone? For people who wanted them gone. And they say, oh, but you're not accounting for the injuries. But then a lot of those same people would be like, oh Lamar Jackson, he regressed. Oh Lamar Jackson took a step back. Oh Lamar Jackson, he was terrible this year. But you're not accounting for the injuries. You see how that works? You see how it works? And again, like I always say, is Lamar Jackson without fault? No, of course not. No, of course not. But Lamar Jackson, he's a winner. Straight up, simple as that, he is a winner. He's a winner. And the Ravens without him, they were not winners. They weren't. That guy is obviously worth all of it, all of it, all of it. So we need not be surprised that 40 mil, that his contract, whenever it happens, I'm thinking maybe 2023, we'll see. Cause this thing could go on like we've talked about. He's on the fifth year option right now and Aaron DeCosta, the way he word it, oh yeah. We're comfortable with that cap here. Yeah, we're fine with that. You know you wanna get that cap here down EDC. I know you do, you know you do. We all know you do, but I know you gotta get up there and be like, oh, we're comfortable. Because if he says that, that's like, okay, no pressure Lamar, go do your thing. We waiting on you, cause again, with a lot of his wording in the press conference, EDC, he pushed it to Lamar. He pushed everything to Lamar. So, hey, we're going at Lamar's pace. Oh, yeah, oh, the cap here, the 23 mil cap here. We can work with that, we're fine with that. We're going at Lamar's pace. I'm talking to him. This is a different situation than I've ever dealt with before. Cause I'm not dealing with an agent, I'm dealing with a player. I'm talking directly to him. We've had like five, six conversations. So the wording was very, very important to pay attention to because it lets you know how the Ravens are going to proceed or at least the perception, the public perception they want to put out there. And basically that is again, Lamar is all on you. We waiting on you. So again, I do think that Lamar, I don't think that he's going to resign. I think he's going to wait this thing out and see what the Ravens do. See how the Ravens do moving forward. See what the Ravens do moving forward. See how they handle the roster, how they handle the draft, how they handle just the salary cap, how they handle players that they have already, how they handle player that they're going to get, how they handle the offense, the schemes, just everything. I think he's just waiting it out. And he is again in no rush. Cause again, he has leverage. He has a lot of leverage. Cause even again, worst case scenario, well worst case scenario, they don't come to a deal this year. He plays out the fifth year option. All right. He just got 23 million in his bank. So if we know the Raven, we know he ain't about to become no unrestricted free agent. We know that's just not happening at all. But worst case scenario, Ravens want to franchise tag him. Ooh, that was a lot of money. That cap will be eaten alive if you put that franchise tag on Lamar because that's guaranteed money. That's guaranteed. You have to eat that cap. You can't get creative with the franchise. No, the franchise tag is all of it. All of it. So we'll see what happens. Should be fun. But again, this whole over 40 mil, Lamar is supposed to be getting. It is no shocker. It is no surprise to me. It is no shocker. It should be no surprise to you. I think all of us, we pretty much knew that this was, or is what will be going down whenever that time comes. Team keeping clean. I love y'all so much. I appreciate y'all so much. We out.