'I Understand The Need To Ask!' Ravens GM DeCosta Curiously Refuses Questions About Lamar Jackson

The NFL requires teams to have pre-draft pressers, but it doesn't dictate what they have to address outside of the upcoming draft.

The Baltimore Ravens curiously decided on Wednesday to halt any and all questions surrounding the Lamar Jackson imbroglio before they even got started at their pre-draft press conference ahead of this month's NFL Draft from Kansas City.

The league requires teams to have these pre-draft pressers, but it doesn't dictate what they have to address outside of the draft.

Ravens GM Eric DeCosta began his press conference by saying, "I understand the need to ask those kinds of questions. I think just out of respect for the process - this is a draft luncheon - and we're going to try and keep just as much of this discussion as we can to the draft. ... and building the best football team we can build."

DeCosta also indicated he's been asked repeatedly about the Jackson situation, and that's correct. Just last week at the annual league meeting, Jackson disclosed his request for a trade literally as Ravens coach John Harbaugh was sitting down with reporters. And he took all such questions in real-time as the Jackson tweet was going viral.

As ProFootballTalk pointed out, "Shutting down certain topics, like that one, can create the impression the team wants to avoid it not because of fatigue but because they have something to hide. Not answering questions creates more questions."

It seems weird for the club to reject questions about Jackson at this point. Especially when they've had every opportunity to perfect their responses when asked questions about Lamar. There's not an obvious advantage to refusing questions.

As a matter of fact, the avoidance of the topic makes the Ravens look somehow rattled by the topic. And if that's the case, Lamar has already won.

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