Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has been on the bench recently due to an injury but some are questioning whether is he really injured or holding out for a better contract.
That’s what Fox Sports commentator Doug Gottlieb seems to think. He thinks Jackson isn’t really injured badly and could play if he wanted to.
Gottlieb wondered if Jackson is just “hurt” and not really injured.
“I was watching the Ravens and Steelers game and… I don’t know, it felt kind of weird. I got the sense that Lamar Jackson was ‘hurt’, I didn’t get the sense that Lamar Jackson was ‘injured.’ So what’s the difference? Well, if you’re ‘hurt’ you get out there, if you’re ‘injured’ you go see a doctor — you’re on the IR. It seems like this a sign without him actually saying ‘hey, I’m not playing until the playoffs because of my contract’. We have enough other data to think this is kind of weird here. It was a ‘mild strain’, we were told it wasn’t that big a deal, it didn’t require any surgery, there was no ‘out 4-6 weeks’… I have no doubt that he hurt his knee, it’s the idea of ‘hurt’ or ‘injured’? I’ve heard at least one person on Fox Sports Radio say he’s never going to play for the Ravens again. You’re saying he’s not going to play in the playoffs?? Of course he’s going to play in the playoffs. He’s under contract for likely the next two years, and there is no negotiation with franchise tags. I hear people say ‘THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY HIM’. Yes, they do, theyjust don’t want a five-year full guaranteed Deshaun Watson contract, which right now doesn’t look like it’s the greatest contract in the world.”
Gottlieb went on to say he gets where Jackson may be coming from but doesn’t think he may be worth the money he is asking for in the long term.
“Personally, I think Lamar is making a point. This is Lamar without a net, this is Lamar energized by writers and fans. He doesn’t have an agent, he doesn’t have a net, he doesn’t have someone to tell him ‘you’re really going to sit out five regular season games to make a point?’— but it feels that way. It feels like he’s trying to make a point: ‘GO AHEAD, WIN WITHOUT ME.’ It’s a valid point. He’s a great talent and a really good player, but there is nothing about his play over the last year and a half that would tell you that he’s a GREAT player, or an elite quarterback. He’s better than Tyler Huntley but is he $50 million a year guaranteed over the next five years better than Tyler Huntley? My answer would be ‘NO.’ All these long-term deals, tell me the good one?? I’m not accusing him of ‘faking’ it, I think he legitimately hurt his knee and when you’re a crazy athletic quarterback you want to be right before you go back out there. But I’m also guessing that no competitor – and Lamar Jackson is a competitor – no fierce competitor is going to miss Steeler Week because your knee hurts, unless you’re trying to prove a bigger point. It feels like something is weird going on.”
At this point, no one not even head coach John Harbaugh knows what is happening with his star quarterback.
