Charles Barkley chimes in on Lamar Jackson situation
Earlier today, a side-by-side comparison of key factors in the offer made to Lamar Jackson by the Ravens and the deal secured by Jalen Hurts with the Eagles revealed that perhaps Jackson rejected a better package than the one Hurts accepted.
Also today, Charles Barkley appeared on The Really Big Show on 850 ESPN Cleveland. Barkley, who has opinions on just about everything, shared these views on the Jackson situation.
“Lamar, you’re playing with fire, brother,” Barkley said. “You’re going to get burnt. These dudes, they’re all billionaires. They’re not going to let you screw up their business model. You’ve got to take the best deal. It’s not even about Lamar. I know what they’re saying behind the scenes. They’re like, ‘Yo man, if you give this guy guaranteed money I’m going to have to give [Justin] Herbert guaranteed money, I’m going to have to give [Joe] Burrow guaranteed money. . . . We can’t give all these guys guaranteed money.'”
Barkley means fully-guaranteed contracts, because they’ll all get guaranteed money. Hurts got plenty, but his contract wasn’t fully guaranteed. He probably never even asked for the contract to be fully guaranteed. If he did, he abandoned that position and said “yes” to the best offer the Eagles would make right now.
It’s all about saying “yes,” eventually. At some point, Lamar has to say “yes.” As we said on Tuesday’s PFT Live, if Lamar were selling a car and he wanted $50,000 for it but no one would offer more than $30,000, at some point he’ll have to take $30,000, or he’s not selling the car at all.
That applies regardless of whether there’s collusion among the potential buyers to hold the line at $30,000. There’s an avenue for Jackson to pursue the argument that the owners are impermissibly in cahoots. At some point, however, he has to say “yes” to something that the Ravens or someone else will offer him.
Given that no one other than the Ravens is making any offer at all, his choices are to say “yes” to the Ravens or not play. If the numbers that were listed earlier today are still available, his best move could be to finally say “yes” and be done with it.
Charles Barkley chimes in on Lamar Jackson situation originally appeared on Pro Football Talk