Lamar Jackson Trade to Falcons? Why ESPN is Wrong

No matter how high ESPN stacks up nutty verbiage, it alters nothing about the cost, the risk and the sense of Baltimore and Atlanta pondering a Lamar Jackson swap.

The Baltimore Ravens just added a bit of hope to the concept of Lamar Jackson being traded to the Atlanta Falcons - one just has to cut through the media junk to see it.

The Falcons remain somewhat unsettled at QB, though rookie Desmond Ridder seems to have some support inside the building. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens obviously have some uncertainty regarding the planned signing of QB Lamar Jackson. ... though Ravens coach John Harbaugh insists the club is "200-percent'' committed to retaining the MVP.

Nevertheless, between the "thrilling'' and the "speculative'' comes the digging from the media searching for Lamar answers - answers that will make up one of the biggest sports stories of the year. One advancement of the ball? NFL Network has sources saying the Ravens will listen to offers.

Which brings us to ESPN attempting to analyze the situation by offering up a weird and twisted pile of gibberish. To wit, ESPN writes ...

1 - “Someone with the team pointed out ... that Atlanta spent three years getting out of salary-cap purgatory and now sits on an estimated $56 million in space.”

That sentence almost makes sense … But isn’t the point of cap space to use it on players?

So … nope. That sentence does not make sense. 

2 - “Giving up multiple first-round picks for the right to spend $200-plus million isn't something Atlanta will be overly eager to do …”

That sentence also almost makes sense … Except the question isn’t about a red herring of “eager spending.” It’s just about the “spending.” Oh, and wasn’t it only a year when Atlanta was extremely “eager” to pay these exact same prices for Deshaun Watson? 

So. … nope. More nonsense. 

3 - No trade “unless absolutely needed.” 

That sentence, unlike the previous two piles of gibberish, actually makes no sense at all, not even on the surface. Indeed, in our 40 years of covering the NFL, we’ve never before heard a phrase like this, or a statement like this. 

There is no such thing as an “absolutely necessary” trade. Two teams either pay the price to deal, or they don’t. 

Pretzel-like phrasing does nothing to advance the ball here. It’s filler, its nonsense and it’s gobbledygook, and no matter how high ESPN stacks up nutty verbiage, it alters nothing about the cost, the risk and the sense of Baltimore and Atlanta pondering a Lamar Jackson swap.

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