'Free Agency Is Always A Bit Dicey!' Ravens GM Eric DeCosta Surprised At Lack Of Offers To QB Lamar Jackson

After months of stalemate negotiations, and after the non-exclusive tag was placed on the former league MVP, something seemed to have changed, and the biggest NFL story of the offseason finally came to a close.

The Baltimore Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson were finally able to come to an agreement on a long-term contract recently.

After months of stalemate negotiations, and after the non-exclusive tag was placed on the former league MVP, something seemed to have changed, and the biggest NFL story of the offseason finally came to a close.

One of the biggest surprises of that story was the fact that no other teams even offered Jackson a deal, and Ravens GM Eric DeCosta spoke with Pro Football Talk who asked if other teams avoided speaking to Lamar because they thought the Ravens would match any offer given.

“I think the franchise [tag] is a powerful tool,” DeCosta said. “I mean, anyone will say that, agents will say that, teams will say that, the union would say that. And so that’s exactly right. I think, you know, the fact is we were having a tough time getting a deal with Lamar. Again, we respected his position and his feelings, but we were still having a tougher time. 

"But in the end, we felt like our deal, that the deals that we had made, we felt they were credible deals, we felt they were strong deals, and we felt like we were in a position to, not that we could match every single deal, but we felt like we would be able to match most deals and that if a team were willing to do a deal that we couldn’t match would be very hard for that team to do that type of deal."

DeCosta also admitted he was a little surprised that no offers were made to the former Heisman Trophy winner.

“Was I surprised? Probably a little bit, but in the end, every team has to look at who they are, how they’re built, what’s important to them. I always feel like one of the advantages to free agency is when you have a guy on your team, you know exactly who he is, you know how he’s wired, you know what’s important to him. Other teams don’t know that, you know? 

"And so that’s why in my mind, free agency is always a little bit dicey because here we are coveting other players on other teams, and we don’t know very much about them. A lot of times we try to find out, but we don’t. We know Lamar Jackson. We know how he’s wired. We know what resonates with him. We know how competitive he is. And so, for us, it was a no-brainer.”

In the end, the deal is done, and Jackson remains a Raven. The Ravens never wavered in their desire to re-sign Jackson. It ultimately came down to finding a structure and amount Jackson would accept.

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