Yes, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson struggled with injuries in late December. Yes, time wasted because of those injuries. Yes, some have suggested he could have returned to play after the PCL injury he sustained in December 2022, against the Broncos.
On Tuesday, Falcons owner Arthur Blank specifically mentioned Jackson’s recent injury date when he distinguished Atlanta’s intense 2022 interest in Deshaun Watson from their current lack of interest in Lamar. That, or maybe something else, prompted Lamar to take to social media tonight.
“Let’s be real,” Jackson tweeted. “I’d rather have a 100% PCL than go out there and play terribly and force myself to put my buddies in a bad position.” Now that’s selfish to me. “
Jackson also said, “I am You don’t remember me sitting outside In my buddies week 1 vs. the Jets to week 12 vs. the Broncos. How come all of a sudden I’m sitting because of money that I could have been hurt at any point in that time frame 🤔 when we know the Super Bowl has been on my mind since April 2018.”
He’s right. He never held out, and he never threatened to stop services in 2021 or 2022, although he has yet to get an offer from the team he deemed worthy of accepting.
Whether he should accept the best offer made before the start of the 2022 season is a different matter. I still think if we knew the full details of the offer that was made, most of us would say, “Yeah, he probably should have taken that.”
Regardless, he suffered an injury when he terminated his rookie contract, with no long-term financial guarantee. Why would he play with anything less than 100 percent when he has no protection or commitment from the team?
As we said at the time, one of the consequences of not having an agent is that he had no one to spread that message at the time, putting pressure on the people in the media (like Mike Vick) who were calling him out for not putting him on the prop and playing.
Of course, if Lamar had an agent, he probably would have had a contract — which would have been a safety that would have allowed him to try to play at less than 100 percent. Without that contract, he did the 100 percent right thing to not play unless he was completely healthy.
We applaud Lamar for standing up for himself in this way. However, his frustration raises questions about where all of this is going. Despite asking for a trade, the Ravens may be his only option. If he gets to the point where he simply won’t play for Baltimore again and if nobody trades him, what will happen?
It’s a question to consider as this drama continues to unfold, one news cycle and/or tweet at a time.
