Ellicottraven
Ravens Ring of Honor
He was raised well. Never forget that. He is class, personified, thanks to his paternal seed.
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Lamar Jackson
- Thread starter Ice Bowl
- Start date
BoredMarine13
Ravens Ring of Honor
99% of NFL contracts are negotiated with agents . If you think his lack of agent has not altered the negotiation process Idk what to tell you.
airconteka
MVP
He was saying there is a lack of evidence of it not going smooth. Not having an agent doesn't preclude it won't go smooth regardless of what percentage do it.
BoredMarine13
Ravens Ring of Honor
Do you think Eric’s life would be easier talking to an agent or directly to Lamar? I willing to bet those conversations about financials are much more difficult face to face with a player. Especially when he is trying to convince Lamar that the Browns are idiots and the Watson contract is not the new norm.
I’m not saying Lamar has caused problems, but not having an agent to sign the richest contract in NFL history is unorthodox and makes the front office job more challenging without a doubt
Tank
Hall of Famer
The only other player I can remember not having an agent was Ed Reed and it seemed like he was always pissed off around contract time. Never went smoothly.
airconteka
MVP
Yeah I don't disagree with all of that and don't know why he has taken this route seems like a ball ache he doesn't need. There's just no evidence that it has gone bad yet.
airconteka
MVP
One party is trying to get the highest number, the other the lowest. Conflicting objectives so yeah not going to be all hugs and kisses. The agent shield the player from all that of course and can focus on football.
Bobby Wagner hasn't had an agent for years.
allblackraven
Hall of Famer
Matt Elam didn't have an agent, although it's possible nobody wanted to represent him.
Richard Sherman comes to mind, too.
gtalk12
Ravens Ring of Honor
I am not going to say that it has not altered anything but we also don't know that it did.
Almost all of the opinions on the Ravens and Lamar Jackson have been pure speculation.
Tank
Hall of Famer
Should have been more specific. Ed is the only other Raven I can remember not using an agent.
Tank
Hall of Famer
I meant the only other Ravens player.
I mean lamar is representing himself so its gonna take a lil bit due longer due to the fact that he got training and the team to worry about… while agents got more time to negotiate.. not to mention they are getting a cut so the faster the deal gets done, the faster they get paid.. idk the percentages, but in lamars case… an agent is possibly looking at a 7mil plus payday. No way im giving away 7mil for some shit i can do myself…
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
You'd think differently if you were negotiating that type of contract. Like nobody actually needs a real estate agent either, and people give away 6% or more to them, but most people still do it. Why is that? Time. Effort. Convenience.
The other things I'd point out is:
1. You talk about the agent getting paid quicker. So does the player. Lamar may get upwards of a $40-50M signing bonus. Maybe more. Who wouldn't want that now instead of 6 months, 12 months, etc. from now?
2. I haven't done a ton of diligence on player-negotiated contracts, but of the two recent one's that come to mind from non-rookies, Sherman and Wagner, those contracts were highly, highly, highly favorable to the team. I've not yet seen the player-negotiated deal where literally anybody thought the player got the good end of the negotiations.
Sherman's deal was heavily criticized by players and agents because he took a short-term, highly incentive-based deal for a player who was actually still considered a "in their prime" player, just coming off injury.
Wagner's deal, who's been a perennial All-Pro, is a one year $10M deal, with four years of total non-guaranteed fluff after that. I don't know that I've ever seen a player of his stature sign a five year deal with a very easy out for the franchise after one year.
And all of that could be totally irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that an agent would have, at least, 4-5 months of additional negotiating time than Lamar. I'd argue 6 months. Because Lamar likely isn't and shouldn't negotiate from September-December (and hopefully into January) and once that period is over, he literally can't negotiate in February or March, because he's not under contract anymore. Then he gets tagged, which creates a slew of issues for the FO, and then he's capped at another period of limitations.
Like there's scenarios here where from September 2022 through December 2023, there's only about 4 months of actual negotiating periods. That number more than doubles if an agent is involved.
BoredMarine13
Ravens Ring of Honor
Yea i gotcha , that’s something i thought about as well until I heard Spencer Schultz report that Lamar had offers from agents reducing their commission between free and 2% of the contract value. I’m assuming they would make a lot of money in other ways just by having Lamar on their books.
BoredMarine13
Ravens Ring of Honor
This was my thought. It’s also emotional. Having the intermediary helps reduce the emotional aspects of the negotiations.
SaltyDog
MVP
I’ve always thought that it’s better that players don’t have to be emotionally entangled in contract negations. He should hire an agent, focus on football and let the agent act on his behalf.
not only that, agents do more than negotiate contracts
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Honestly, I don't care if he hires one or not. It's just clear that the people who think agents aren't important don't know what they're talking about.
There's pros and cons to both sides. And the cons for Lamar are a) historically, player-negotiated contracts they tend to "lose" in the negotiations, b) it'll almost certainly take longer to get paid than with an agent, c) its far more emotional and d) it's just personally more work he has to do. And he's not getting paid to do it either.
SaltyDog
MVP
Agree with all that. I mean he’s gonna be very wealthy with this contract, whenever it gets done, and whatever the details. Why stress out over negations? It makes no sense to me. Does he have ambitions of being a player agent someday? It’s puzzling to me.