Lamar Jackson: 'I Love Baltimore'

Ravens QB due for contract extension.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson expressed his desire to remain with the Ravens and has already spoken to general manager Eric DeCosta about a contract extension.

Jackson will be looking for a deal worth around $40 million per season. 

The Ravens picked up his fifth-year portion earlier this month, which cost the team $23.016 million.

“I spoke with ‘Mr. EDC’ probably like a month or two ago. I would love to be here forever," Jackson said. "I love Baltimore. I love the whole organization. I love everybody in the building. But hopefully, we’ll be making something happen pretty soon or whenever.”

.@Lj_era8 out here catching punts and making it look easy. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/ERA2A6RsWT

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) May 26, 2021

Jackson is overly concerned about the deal getting done before the season. 

"I’m really focused on the season. I’m focused on trying to win," Jackson said. "I’m not really worried about if it gets done this year or next year. I’m just trying to build and stack, and we’re going to see. We don’t know yet.”

When asked whether Jackson would be representing himself, he replied: “Maybe, maybe. I told you, we’ll see.” 

Jackson, who was selected by the Ravens with the 32nd overall pick in the 2018 draft, has gone 30-7 as the starter in the regular season. He has thrown for 7,085 yards with 68 touchdowns and 18 interceptions over his young career. 

Jackson is also the only quarterback in NFL history to run for over 1,000 yards in two seasons and has 2,906 yards rushing and 19 scores overall.

However, the new contract will reverberate throughout the organization and affect the way the team conducts business, DeCosta said.

"It will change the way that we do contracts, potentially," DeCosta said earlier this offseason. "We will have to be probably a little bit more careful about which players we sign and which players we don’t sign. We may lose some good, young players.

"That’s unfortunately just the salary cap age that we’re in, and it happens to every single team. So, we’ll be aggressive, if possible. I think the Draft will continue and will always remain the lifeblood of this organization when it comes to building this team and building the roster, and Draft picks will be more important than ever.”