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As the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson's contract standoff continues, former Indianapolis Colts defensive star Dwight Freeney not a fan of the situation.
The Ravens placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Jackson, which is a one-year, $32.4 million deal. With no breakthrough in negotiations for the last two years, many think the tag was Baltimore's last resort.
Freeney, who was franchise-tagged before agreeing to a monster deal, said that he isn't a fan of the NFL's franchise tag on the "Up & Adams" show.
"I don't think it should exist ... but unfortunately for us in the National Football League and those players who played, you can't make all the rules," Freeney said. "The owners are going to make the rules, and if you want to go to strike to find a way to change the rules, you can do that.
"But I don't like the fact that you can just hold up a guy's progress. If you love a guy, sign up. If you don't want him, let him go, you know, and make it simple like that."
If a franchise isn't willing to pay the going rate, then instead of tagging him, it should let him go. But as things stand, teams have more power, and that isn't likely to change anytime soon.
Could Lamar Jackson sit out the 2023 season?
In theory, Lamar Jackson could sit out the entire 2023 season without a new contract. However, should he do so, he would lose $32.4 million. Now, while the non-exclusive franchise tag for one year isn't what Jackson wants, it is still quite a lot of money.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk put forth an interesting idea for the Ravens to put in per-game bonuses for Jackson. According to Florio's notion, at a $1 million bonus per game, if Lamar plays all 17 games, then that could push his yearly salary to $49.4 million.
That could be an option, but the Ravens surely want to get Lamar Jackson tied down to a new deal (we think) and only have until July 17 to get it done.
