Lamar Jackson injury history: Analyzing former NFL MVP’s terrible luck amid contract controversy
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson headlined NFL news on Tuesday after being franchise tagged. The team elected to use the non-exclusive franchise tag on the former MVP.
We have used the franchise tag on quarterback Lamar Jackson. https://t.co/AHrqyCgcAI
Baltimore couldn't reach an agreement with Jackson on a long-term deal before yesterday's franchise tag window closed at 4:00 PM, forcing the tag.
He is set to earn $32.4 million this season and still has the chance to still hammer out a long-term deal with Baltimore.
There are rumblings that Jackson wants a similar contract to Deshaun Watson, who received a five-year $230 million deal that was fully guaranteed by the Cleveland Browns last season.
NFL Owners and GMs across the league definitely despise the #Browns giving Deshaun Watson a fully gtd contract
They wanted it to be a one-time outlier, but more and more players are going to start asking for these fully guaranteed deals. Lamar Jackson is only the beginning https://t.co/g2JbiutnYE
Baltimore is reluctant to award a QB like Jackson for that kind of deal due to his wear-and-tear style of play and injury history starting to pile up.
Jackson has endured five injuries throughout five seasons in the NFL. In 2015, he missed one game while in college at Louisville with a pedal ankle sprain.
His first injury in the NFL came in 2020 when he had a patella sprain in his knee that forced him to miss practice ahead of the Ravens' Week 5 matchup vs. the Bengals. He still played against the Bengals that week.
He suffered a concussion during the 2021 divisional round game vs. the Buffalo Bills on January 16, 2021.
At the start of the 2021-2022 season, he suffered a sprained lower back and missed practice that week but still played against the Denver Broncos in Week 4.
A little over two months later, he suffered a pedal ankle sprain in Week 14 that shut him down for the remainder of the season.
In the 2022 season, Jackson had a knee sprain to his PCL, which forced him to miss the final six games of the season, including the wildcard matchup between their rival, the Cincinnati Bengals.
Lamar Jackson deserves to be extended
Lamar Jackson absolutely deserves to be extended.
We live in a world where Kyler Murray got a $230 million deal with $189.5 million guaranteed. Jackson is 45-16 as a career starter while Murray is 22-23-1.
ok, let's see here
so Kyler Murray gets $230,500,000 with $189,500,000 guaranteed after proving nothing & going 22-23-1 as a starter
and Aaron Rodgers gets $50,271,667 a year with $150M guaranteed at 38-years old
and DeShaun Watson gets $230,000,000 guaranteed after over 20… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… https://t.co/Hykb5Ec36D
Lamar Jackson also has a few playoff victories under his belt, led the league in passing touchdowns in 2019, and won a unanimous MVP.
Quarterbacks Derek Carr, Geno Smith, and Daniel Jones all got new contracts this week that are all worth more than $35 million per season.
Jackson certainly deserves more money than these guys and will keep fighting to get the best possible deal that he can get.