Lamar Jackson Won't Have a New Ravens Contract Before Sunday's Opener

The Baltimore Ravens open their 2026 season Sunday on the road against the Indianapolis Colts without a new deal for quarterback Lamar Jackson, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. Jackson has been more focused on the opener than contract talks, Schefter reported, and the two sides haven't held significant discussions recently despite Baltimore's stated willingness to make him the league's highest-paid quarterback.

Jackson is still under his five-year, $260 million extension signed in April 2023, with two years left on the deal. That contract only got done after a bitter, months-long standoff in 2022 and 2023 that included a public trade request from Jackson after the Ravens hit him with the franchise tag. General manager Eric DeCosta has since called that stretch one of the hardest periods of his career.

This time around, the tone is different. According to Jonathan Jones of The Athletic, the relationship between Jackson and the Ravens is the "healthiest it's ever been," with both sides intending to keep working together long-term. DeCosta told reporters September 2 he's "optimistic" a new deal gets done before the start of the new league year in March, and he described the team's approach to paying its best players as "fair-plus."

"We try to compensate our players, our best players, as well as we can," DeCosta said, according to ESPN. "We try to be fair-plus with our players. And I think over time we've proven that for the most part."

But optimism isn't a signature. Jackson, 29, represents himself in negotiations, with no agent working the phones on his behalf. Because of that, Jones reported, Jackson isn't expected to negotiate at all once the regular season starts. That leaves DeCosta and the front office in a holding pattern for at least the next five months.

The financial pressure is real. Jackson's cap hit balloons to $84.3 million in 2027, and Spotrac projects the Ravens will be $41.5 million over the salary cap next year without a restructure. His current $52 million annual average ranks just 12th among NFL quarterbacks, behind names like Baker Mayfield, Brock Purdy and Trevor Lawrence. Only Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott currently clear $60 million a year, and of the 13 quarterbacks making at least $50 million annually, Jackson is the only one whose deal expires before 2028.

Jackson also holds a card the Ravens can't override: a no-franchise-tag clause he negotiated into his current contract. If he plays it out, Baltimore cannot tag him to keep him off the market. That's real leverage for a two-time MVP heading into his age-31 season in 2028, and it's a big reason DeCosta wants a deal locked in well before then rather than bidding against the open market later.

None of this happens in a vacuum. Jackson is coming off a down 2025 season by his standards: 2,549 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and just 349 rushing yards, his lowest total since entering the league. Among 32 qualifying quarterbacks last year, he ranked 16th in success rate and 19th in EPA per dropback, according to TruMedia. Baltimore missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Former agent Joel Corry, who analyzes contracts for CBS Sports, told the New York Times the calm now could turn loud fast. "The better he plays, the more people are going to focus on it," Corry said. "If he gets back to doing Lamar things, it's going to be a major storyline." A strong bounce-back season under new head coach Jesse Minter and new play-caller Declan Doyle would only raise Jackson's price tag and his asking leverage heading into the winter.

The fair read here isn't panic. A quarterback declining to negotiate his own contract during the season he's trying to win games in is common sense, not a red flag. The genuine risk sits on Baltimore's side of the ledger. DeCosta has a self-imposed March deadline, a cap crunch already projected at $41.5 million over the limit, and a quarterback who can simply run out the clock on his current deal if a bad season sours the relationship. Nothing symbolizes the stakes better than DeCosta fielding 154 words worth of Jackson questions from reporters last week, according to the New York Times, and spending nearly a third of them just declining to answer.