Lamar Jackson Wants Fully Guaranteed Contract? ESPN - Get Ravens Story Right

The Lamar Jackson contract negotiation story with the Ravens is too important for ESPN to goof up. "The World-Wide Leader'' needs to get its stuff together.

ESPN.com during the 2022 season reported that Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson wanted a fully-guaranteed contract along the lines of what the Cleveland Browns are paying Deshaun Watson.

It seems to use like a logical report - and maybe even a logical request.

Last week, ESPN reported something quite the contrary, Stephen A. Smith claiming that Jackson never asked for a fully-guaranteed deal.

And now ESPN.com is reiterated that the Ravens star does indeed want a fully-guaranteed contract. ... and we say, "Of course he does.''

But we say something else: This is too important an issue - for the Ravens, for Jackson, for future contracts of QBs and for future contracts of all NFL players - to be reported on incompletely or inaccurately. ESPN owes it to all involved to report it right ... or to not report it at all.

And there is no room for "water-carrying'' here.

“According to sources,” writes the credible Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com, “Jackson wants a fully guaranteed deal like the one given to Deshaun Watson last year, and the Ravens have been reluctant to offer that because they believe Watson’s deal is more of an outlier than a precedent.”

We strongly believe that the above paragraph captures the essence of the stalemate in this negotiations. Period.

And we believe further that Smith - the face of ESPN and to his credit as diligent a worker as the network employs - should cross-check what he's being told by the "Jackson camp'' with reporters (like Hensley) who are committed to the Ravens beat and informed about it in a way that Smith simply cannot be.

ESPN is a big place, a big entity, and there is no doubt that sometimes the right hand will struggle to know what the left hand is doing. But ESPN.com is (or should be) "the same'' as "ESPN on TV.'' And there should be embarrassment in Bristol that the same news outlet is now issuing Lamar Jackson contract reports that are in direct conflict with one another.

Logically, it seems Jackson’s camp wanted a favor from Stephen A. Smith, who is granting it actually did a disservice to his network, and more importantly, to the player and his employer.

The Ravens seem prepared to apply the franchise tag by next Tuesday's deadline, and of course, that won't be the end of this; it'll just be the beginning. It will also mark another opportunity for all of us in the information business to work to get it right ...

And for ESPN to get its stuff together before "The World-Wide Leader'' tries to pick a side ... and ends up in conflict with itself.

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