Wrighster or Wrong - Lamar Jackson Contract Collusion

George Wrighster gets into the NFL collusion that is keeping Lamar Jackson from making Deshaun Watson money. #fsrweekends

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You ready to check your feeling to the door. This
is am I Rester or am I Raw. We're bringing
you facts and only the truth. Now, am I Rester
or am I Raw? We need to talk about Lamar
Jackson's value and let's just get this out of the way.
Of course, the owners are colluding with each other against

(00:23):
paying Lamar Jackson two hundred plus million dollars in guaranteed money.
But they're not colluding against Lamar Jackson as much as
they are Cleveland Brown's owner Jimmy Haslem, who gave the
Shaan Watson almost a quarter billion dollars fully guaranteed, and
the owners, including Steve Bishotti, were very vocal that they
thought that has them unnecessarily reset the market for elite passers,

(00:47):
which has led to average quarterbacks like Daniel Jones. And
even though this dude played better this last season, Geno
Smith inking deals that gave them a twenty twenty three
total salary more than Tom Bray he made in any
single season in his twenty three year career. You're worth
what the market will bear. And Cleveland Browns they were

(01:08):
desperate and you're not gonna hear me blaming Deshaun Watson
for taking that damn money and agreeing to be paid.
But he will need to find a way to restructure
his contract if he wants the team to be competitive
at any point, because the Browns are already in twenty
twenty three eight digits over the salary cap, and you
know that other teams see it. And we've heard the

(01:31):
Bills general manager talk about the advantage that the Bengals
have right now in having their young superstar quarterback on
a rookie deal. And even if the Bills are having
a bit of buyer's remorse in having to pay Josh
Allen market value, but he's not even in the top
five quarterbacks in terms of salary on average per year,

(01:52):
And it stands to reason that the Ravens would be
cautious and weigh all of their options at quarterback, even
if an MVP is in the building. And it's no
secret that Lamar, who acts as his own agent, hasn't
been seeing eye to eye with the Ravens front office.
And we've heard so much talk oh, he would have
a deal if he had an agent, maybe because his

(02:15):
agent would have asked him to take concessions, But would
he have been happy with that deal. What an agent
actually does is is acts as a translator. So when
one side of the negotiation it's like, man, f them, Man,
let's throw this away, it's over, they go back and say, listen, listen,
they're a little bit frustrated. There are a couple points

(02:37):
of contention. Let's see what you think about this a translator.
And the last two quarterbacks that got big money extensions
despite not always getting along with their front office, Aaron
Rodgers and Kyler Murray. Money didn't fix that at all.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are headed for a divorce,
and Kyler Murray not only won the divorce with his

(02:57):
head coach Cliff Kingsbury and general manager, but he got
full custody of the team. And last year, when the
Jaguars gave Christian Kirk a resetting, a market resetting wide
receiver contract, so many players asked for a trade or
an extension that NFL front officers had no choice but
to do whatever they could to salvage the locker room.

(03:20):
The players had strength in numbers. This time it's just
Lamar Lamar Jackson versus the NFL. And don't let anybody
tell you that this is a race issue. Most of
the NFL's highest paid quarterbacks are black. This is about
the Ravens owner Steve Bashotti, who is a billionaire owner

(03:40):
of an international talent acquisition and marketing firm, decided to
play chicken with his star quarterback on the half on
the behalf of his colleagues and playing chicken his fine, though,
if there's a reward to your risk, But what is
the reward? Because Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert's agent just
why Daniel Jones inca deal for forty million dollars a

(04:03):
year for putting up season long stats that their clients
do by week ten. And even if the Shaun Watson's
contract isn't anomaly paid out by an owner who can
afford it because he's one of the only executives at
Flying Jay that didn't go to jail for scamming truckers,
the Jones contract and the Smith contracts make Watson's deal

(04:26):
actually look reasonable. And Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert, while
the salary cap is gonna go up about one hundred
million dollars over the next four years, bro they're gonna
get well over two hundred million dollars guarantee the owners
are trying to kick the can down the street and
listen there, it's coming to a head, buddy, and Steve

(04:47):
Bushotti might have won the day by making Lamar Jackson's
franchise tag non exclusive to show his quarterback that there
isn't a twenty twenty three market in which a team
is willing to pay him two hundred plus million and
two first round picks. But that day is fading. Lamar
Jackson is getting paid by somebody. Might not be the Ravens,

(05:08):
but somebody is gonna give him that cash. And if
Steve Bashotti isn't careful, he's gonna end up having his
point proven, only to have to turn around and pay
two hundred plus million dollars to an average quarterback two
years down the road, rather than rewarding the MVP in
the building. Let that sink in