Shannon Sharpe FIRMLY believes Lamar Jackson’s deal would still be a mess if he had an agent
Shannon Sharpe doesn't believe an agent would've been successful in getting Lamar Jackson a $200 million deal.
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Shannon Sharpe and Lamar Jackson (Image via YouTube and Sporting News)
The Lamar Jackson contract drama finally cooled down, at least for a bit, as he was placed on the non-exclusive franchise tag by the Ravens. With this tag, Jackson will earn around $32 million and is open to negotiating with any team he wants.
However, Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, Washington Commanders, and Las Vegas Raiders publicly said they were not interested in pursuing Lamar Jackson, which slightly shocked the majority of the league. These teams believe that the Ravens are anyway going to match any deal that is offered to Jackson and keep him in Baltimore.
These trade talks between Jackson and the Ravens have been happening for more than a year now and still, neither of the sides has agreed to a deal. The 2019 NFL MVP wants a $200 million fully guaranteed type of deal, but the team is unwilling to shell out that much money. The maximum they have offered in fully guaranteed money is $133 million.
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Shannon Sharpe believes if Lamar Jackson kept rejecting every deal, an agent couldn’t have done much
After news broke about Lamar Jackson being franchise tagged by the Ravens, many fans suggested that an agent would’ve succeeded in getting the quarterback the kind of deal he hoped for. But UNDISPUTED co-host Shannon Sharpe disagreed and said that having an agent negotiate on his behalf wouldn’t have been of much help, either.
Shannon said, “Agent or no agent, asking for a fully guaranteed contract of this significant amount when there is only one of those out of 1500 players that have contract. Hell nah.” He added that an agent can, at max, act as a buffer between the team and the player. The agent only presents the players with what the team is willing to offer, filtering all the negative comments they might’ve said during the negotiations.
Since Lamar Jackson doesn’t have an agent to represent him, the NFL Players Association is helping him navigate the contract talks with the Ravens. “I believe the NFLPA wants this to be the norm, guaranteed contracts. Especially, they would like to have guaranteed contracts for all of its players like the NBA, MLB, and hockey,” Shannon added.
“I don’t believe it. What can the agent do? It only works if the client is willing to accept what the team offered,” the Hall of Fame tight end said. Shannon’s opinion seems to have all the valid points suggesting that an agent wouldn’t be of any help either because if the client is unwilling to settle down to an amount. There isn’t much the agent can do.
Let’s see which teams approach Jackson and offer him upwards of $200 million to have him play for them!
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Yash Karandekar
(1023 Articles Published)