Ravens QB Lamar Jackson quiet about possible contract extension

BALTIMORE — There were sidearm slings to Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar in stride and completions to Zay Flowers, DeAndre Hopkins and Mark Andrews. Some throws were on target, some were off, some were intercepted. The difference was who was throwing them. It was in many ways the full Lamar Jackson experience, at least as much as it can be this time of year, with plenty of bounce in his step. Tuesday afternoon, the Ravens quarterback made his first appearance in Owings Mills since the first day of voluntary organized team activities last month. It marked the first of a two-day mandatory minicamp and every player was in attendance with the exception of safety Ar'Darius Washington and rookie offensive lineman Emery Jones Jr., both of whom have been sidelined this spring with injuries. Shortly after Jackson took the field for the two-plus hour practice, quarterbacks coach Tee Martin asked him what he'd been watching this offseason. "The first thing he said was the games that we lost," Martin said. "He's like, 'I just wanna know how we lost 'em and what we did and how we can be better.'" The answer is easy. Baltimore turned the ball over three times in its 27-25 divisional round loss to the Buffalo Bills. Two of them came from Jackson, with a fumble on one play and an interception on another. What, then, was his focus in re-watching the misery? "Try to make the game a lot easier for us," Jackson said. "Going into a game and knowing what a defense gonna do before they do it." Martin added that the loss to Buffalo was also a "deep-felt" one for the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player. "The last two seasons it kind of ended that way with some really emotional losses," Martin said. They've stuck with Jackson. "I felt like when we protected the ball we had no problems moving the ball down the field," he said of the defeat in Orchard Park, N.Y, in January. "Just the turnovers. [Without] turnovers, I feel like we win." How long did it take for him to get over? "I don't think I get over any loss," he said. "I got losses from youth football that still haunt me." He was also still bothered by the vitriol directed at Andrews — his most trusted confidant since the two entered the NFL together in 2018 — after the wide-open tight end dropped a would-be game-tying 2-point conversion with 93 seconds remaining against the Bills. Speaking for the first time since after that loss, Jackson offered an impassioned and impromptu defense of his favorite target. "That guy's different," he said. "I been seeing my guy be getting talked about and I really don't like that. He's done so much for us." The same can easily said about Jackson, of course. Entering his eighth year in the league, he has risen to perhaps the best player in the sport and is coming off his best season. In 2024, Jackson posted career highs in passing yards (4,172) and touchdown passes (41) and nearly took home a third NFL MVP Award, narrowly losing out to Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Which is why the Ravens and Jackson have already engaged in contract extension discussions this offseason. Though Jackson, 28, still has three years remaining on the $260 million deal he signed during the 2023 offseason, general manager Eric DeCosta has said that extending the quarterback's contract is a priority. With a prohibitive salary cap hit of $74.5 million slated for 2026 and 2027, it would behoove Baltimore to do so sooner than later. Asked about the status of those discussions, however, Jackson declined to answer questions pertaining to his contract. Whenever a deal gets done, though, it's likely Jackson will be among the highest paid players in football. Though he was briefly the highest paid player in the league when he signed his most recent deal, Jackson's annual average salary has since slipped to 10th. The longer things go without a new deal, the costlier he could become. For comparison, the Bills signed Allen to a six-year, $330 million extension earlier this offseason. In the meantime, Flowers has said that Jackson has talked about wanting to gather players for more meetings, while Jackson said he plans to get together with his pass catchers before the start of training camp in late July. Martin added that Jackson has also been a far more vocal leader than he was a few years ago. "I feel like just bonding with my guys that'll help us out a lot more," Jackson said. "Picking each other's brains, being around each other a lot more we'll probably know what one of us is thinking ahead." How exactly that manifests remains to be seen. Jackson attended just one of the team's nine voluntary practices earlier this spring, though he did recently get together with Flowers for at least a couple of throwing sessions down in South Florida, where both live in the offseason. And it was clear that the Buffalo loss was still on his mind. One of those sessions included the quarterback being captured on video voicing his displeasure on a miscommunication and likening it to his interception against the Bills. "We just make each other better," he said of the sessions with Flowers. "We gonna talk trash to one another because we wanna see each other win." He's also confident about what's ahead. "We gonna bounce back," Jackson said. "When we come back, I feel like we're going to have vengeance on our mind."