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Sports finance expert hints Lamar Jackson should hire agent

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports

Sports finance expert hints Ravens' Lamar Jackson should hire agent

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 4/6/23

Sports finance expert Marc Ganis "works closely with NFL owners" and has suggested the time has come for Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson to work with a proven agent.

"When they are looking to do a market-rate contract, they can save a lot of money," Ganis told Fox Sports NFC West writer Eric Williams about the situation involving the Ravens and Jackson. "If you're a 12-year veteran, you know where you are starting. You've had three or four contracts before that. You understand the issues related to number of plays, number of games, bonuses — things like that. There's no reason why you shouldn't. When you're talking about trying to do something out of the ordinary, like what Lamar Jackson is trying to do, that's a tough one."

Jackson is coming off the final year of his rookie contract and had his rights for 2023-24 retained by Baltimore via the non-exclusive franchise tag. The one-time NFL Most Valuable Player has negotiated without the help of a representative certified by the NFL Players Association and is allegedly looking to earn over $230M in fully guaranteed money from his second pro deal.

Last month, some former league executives were split regarding Jackson's decision to work without an agent, while Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio has repeatedly insisted the 26-year-old would've already signed a contract with the Ravens had he hired a skilled representative as far back as last year:

"There's a real possibility that Lamar Jackson doesn't show up this year if Baltimore doesn't offer him more money" ~ @ProFootballTalk #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/JimyVzDuuf
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 29, 2023

"If he's really focused on the guarantee, it's hard to see how you don't bring in an experienced professional to find the ways to do it, try to find the weaknesses in the opponent's argument," Ganis continued.

Just about every team linked with Jackson since January has either gone in a different direction at the position or reportedly has no intentions to make a move for him while he's on the non-exclusive tag. Ganis sounds unsurprised by that development.

"The reason why teams don't want to do guaranteed contracts isn't because the owners make more money," Ganis explained. "They don't because, remember, it's still a hard salary cap and a very high salary floor. The reason is it diminishes a team's flexibility to sign players later on. So, if you have someone with a long-term contract, and you have to keep paying them another 60 million in year seven or year six because he's not performing, you can't drop that player and pick up another player at another position. It's very hard to move off."

With each day that passes, it seems that Jackson and the Ravens working out a compromise for at least the upcoming season is the best resolution for all involved unless the signal-caller is serious about not playing on the franchise tag even if that decision costs him millions of dollars.

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