John Harbaugh has been in Baltimore since 2008. He isn't going anywhere else anytime soon, but time is ticking on his quarterback's future.
The Ravens signed Harbaugh to a three-year extension through 2025, the team announced Tuesday. On the heels of Harbaugh's extension came fresh questions regarding Lamar Jackson's future, which still lacks clarity.
It seems as if Jackson is in no hurry to get a new deal done.
"Unless he has a change of heart and calls (Ravens general manager) Eric (DeCosta) and says I’m ready," Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti told reporters Tuesday, via The Athletic's Jeff Zrebiec. "But it’s like, Eric can’t keep calling him and say, 'Hey Lamar, you really need to get in here and get this thing done.'"
The same round of questions have followed DeCosta and Harbaugh for roughly a year, and neither have been able to provide a satisfactory answer. It's difficult, as they've indicated and as Bisciotti said Tuesday, to state progress has been made on a deal when Jackson hasn't displayed interest in coming to an agreement.
That shouldn't be interpreted as some sort of divide between the two parties. A financial advantage exists for Jackson to continue waiting to work on a deal. Green Bay just handed Aaron Rodgers an average of $50 million per year with his three-year extension that runs through 2026, while Cleveland fully guaranteed all $230 million of Deshaun Watson's new five-year contract he signed following his trade to the Browns.
Those deals will reset the market in more than one way. Rodgers' contract will increase the average annual value for elite quarterbacks -- which was already nearing $50 million thanks to extensions struck with Patrick Mahomes ($45 million per year) and Josh Allen ($43 million) -- while Watson's contract has set a precedent for teams fully guaranteeing massive deals that cast a massive shadow over the last landmark deal of its kind: Kirk Cousins' fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million deal signed in 2018.
Bisciotti expressed some concern regarding Watson's contract, which will undoubtedly impact how his team figures out how to keep Jackson for the next half-decade, if not longer.
"It's like, 'Damn, I wish they hadn't guaranteed the whole contract,'" Bisciotti said. "I don't know that he should've been the first guy to get a fully guaranteed contract."
With Watson's current legal situation considered, Bisciotti's viewpoint on the matter is understandable. But its affect on future negotiations will extend well beyond the Cleveland area.
"To me, that's something that is groundbreaking, and it'll make negotiations harder with others," Bisciotti said, via ESPN's Jamison Hensley.
To this point, the Ravens haven't made any notable progress on such negotiations. Jackson will have plenty of precedent (and leverage) to rely on when he decides to place the call to DeCosta and sit down with the Ravens, who have crafted their team to fit Jackson's strengths since selecting him 32nd overall in 2018.
Jackson is also taking a significant risk by waiting. Much like those playing a season on the franchise tag (i.e., Allen Robinson in Jacksonville in 2017), Jackson could suffer a serious injury that would hurt his future earning power. Fortunately for Jackson, there's precedent for that, too, and it didn't hurt Dak Prescott's pockets when it came time for Dallas to commit to him via a four-year, $160 million deal.
Regardless of what happens with Jackson, the Ravens don't have any misgivings regarding Harbaugh, who owns a 137-88 regular-season record in his head-coaching career, which began with his hiring in 2008 to replace Brian Billick. It took Harbaugh just five seasons to lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl triumph, besting his brother, Jim Harbaugh, in Super Bowl XLVII. Since then, Baltimore has posted just two losing seasons (2015 and 2021).
Though Harbaugh is coming off a losing season, he attracted plenty of praise for the job he did in 2021, a campaign in which his team suffered a tremendous amount of losses due to injury. Baltimore lost its entire starting backfield before the season even began, then watched a number of key defenders depart due to ailments that eventually reached Jackson. All the while, Harbaugh's team remained competitive despite the losses, battling into the final weeks of the season before finishing with an 8-9 record.
Baltimore has its leadership group in place. Now it just needs to secure its most important player for years to come. Jackson will certainly have his eye on a new AFC North rival when it comes time to talk dollars.