Odell Beckham Jr. Going to the Ravens Doesn’t Mean There’s a Solution With Lamar Jackson

Baltimore’s latest acquisition isn’t proof positive that the sides will do a deal to end what’s been an unpredictable process.

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Odell Beckham Jr. isn’t going to Baltimore to play with Tyler Huntley.

If we’re being honest about it, he’s headed there for the money.

Which is why, on its face, I wouldn’t look at the Ravens’ latest acquisition as proof positive that the Lamar Jackson situation is about to be settled. But after playing with a receiver group that would’ve been middle of the pack in the SEC a year ago, Jackson, you can be sure, appreciated his team’s decision to go get Beckham.

And when quarterback and team return to the negotiating table, that certainly won’t hurt, even if getting to play with Jackson was the determining factor in the former Giant, Brown and Ram picking his fourth NFL home.

Beckham signing a one-year deal with the Ravens doesn't guarantee Jackson will sign an extension or his franchise tag with Baltimore :: Jessica Rapfogel/USA TODAY Sports

When Beckham popped into the owners’ meetings in Arizona two weeks ago, he came to meet the Ravens first, and he came with a new price tag: $15 million. That, of course, did not mean he was going to land a deal that’d pay him $15 million per year. It did mean that number essentially became the price to take him off the market. So with Beckham set to visit—and negotiate with—the Jets on Monday, Ravens GM Eric DeCosta knew what it’d take to get Beckham signed before he could board a flight for New Jersey.

Beckham landed his $15 million on a one-year deal in Baltimore, with another $3 million in upside in the contract.

The good news is the Ravens now have a pair of starting wide receivers with Beckham and Rashod Bateman (coming off injury) to sell to Jackson. The bad news is the Jackson situation is, and has been, unpredictable enough to a point where it’d be silly to project anything before Jackson picks up a pen to sign a contract. That unpredictably extended to the team’s annual predraft media luncheon last week, where DeCosta was asked, point blank, whether the Ravens would consider taking a quarterback with the No. 22 pick.

“Depends on the board, it really does,” DeCosta said. “I would have to say yes because we have quarterbacks in our top 31. So just based on that alone—simple math—I would have to say yes.”

I’d first say that Jackson shouldn’t take that as a shot across the bow, because that’s certainly not what it was, when you consider how careful the Ravens have been in discussing any details about this particular negotiation.

That said, there’s also simple logic that can be applied here. If you asked Bills GM Brandon Beane whether he’d consider taking a quarterback with the No. 27 pick, how do you think he’d answer? How about if you asked Brett Veach about the Chiefs taking one at 31, or Duke Tobin about the Bengals taking one at 28? No matter how they felt about this year’s class, I’d bet they’d look at you like you had three heads, say no and move on.

That DeCosta would entertain the question is at least a sign of how unpredictable the Jackson situation has become, even for those deep in the weeds of it. Baltimore’s made significant offers. Jackson has, at points, made counteroffers. It’s not like there hasn’t been an effort at a resolution. Yet here are the Ravens, less than three weeks from the draft, with a 26-year-old former MVP quarterback tagged and the answer to that question out there.

Probably a good signal to the rest of us to get out of the prediction business on this one. Even if, again, Beckham’s presence should help.