Raven Country

Insider Drops Wild Ravens Comparison to Lakers Blockbuster Trade

One of the biggest trades in NBA history has set the sports world on fire.

Jon Alfano

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson gets off a pass during first half action during the Buffalo Bills divisional game against the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Jan. 19, 2025.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson gets off a pass during first half action during the Buffalo Bills divisional game against the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Jan. 19, 2025. / Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Rarely is the sports world left as speechless as it was early Sunday morning.

Just past midnight on the East Coast, the Dallas Mavericks shocked the world by training All-NBA guard Luka Doncic, who just led them to the NBA Finals last season, to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for big man Anthony Davis and a 2029 first-round pick. There are other pieces to the trade, but the mere thought of trading away one of the best players in the league for pennies on the dollar, much less going through with it, is ludicrous.

As sports fans try to comprehend what just happened, a common question emerged: what would an equivalent trade in other league's even look like?

Well, ESPN's Adam Schefter put forward an intersting proposal in NFL terms. The leading NFL insider claimed that the Baltimore Ravens trading Lamar Jackson to the Cincinnati Bengals for Joe Burrow, with extra pieces on both sides, in the middle of the season would be an equivalent trade.

There's no doubt that such a trade would send shockwaves across the league, as two MVP-caliber quarterbacks in the same division switching places is virtually unprecedented. However, it doesn't feel like the best comparison.

Both Jackson and Burrow are still at the top of their games, and they both just had arguably the best seasons of their career in 2024. Even though the Bengals' offense isn't built for Jackson, just as the Ravens' offense isn't built for Burrow, there's no doubt they would find success with their new teams.

In contrast, Doncic and Davis are not remotely comparable. Doncic is pretty much a generational player in the NBA, earning first-team All-NBA honors in each of the past five seasons and being one of the most effective scorers in league history. Davis was one of the best players in the league and can still be very effective, but he's 31 - six years older than Doncic - and has dealt with many, many injuries over the past half decade.

When trying to put such a trade into NFL terms a better comparison would probably be the Ravens trading Jackson (or the Bengals trading Burrow, or the Buffalo Bills trading Josh Allen, etc.) for an older quarterback such as Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams, for example. Stafford, like Davis, is a star player who can still be effective later in his career, but is nowhere near the caliber of Jackson at this point in time.

Such blockbuster trades are far rarer in the NFL compared to the NBA, so it's hard to put this trade into NFL terms. Even without that comparison, though, it's still wild to believe such a trade really happened.

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Jon Alfano
JON ALFANO

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