Lamar Jackson is the best QB in the NFL & Fantasy

[Cameron Giles]

This is so silly. Lamar didn't get his guaranteed contract. That is what teams didn't want to give him. Nobody said they didn't want the player. They didn't want to have to give compensation and then have to give guaranteed money. Stop pretending teams said, "Nah, Lamar isn't good, we don't want him." That is not what happened.

No, they outright said "we will not even negotiate with him" and put out press releases to that effect.

I can drag them up if you really want.

To not even attempt to negotiate with him is the part that we are hanging around these teams necks. They deserve to be shamed for it. There was nothing stopping any of them from at least putting a contract in front of Lamar, and forcing the Ravens hand.

They didn't even try.

This was the most blatant collusion I've ever seen out of the NFL.

Owners didn't want to set a precedent for fully guaranteed contracts or NFL players negotiating without an agent. Plain and simple. All of these excuses are just subterfuge. There were several NFL teams that should've been jumping through hoops to sign Lamar this off-seson.

Bingo. We've never seen teams leak info to their reporters with the type of synchronization that happened with Lamar. It wasn't a coincidence.

[TheTroll]

No, they outright said "we will not even negotiate with him" and put out press releases to that effect.

I can drag them up if you really want.

To not even attempt to negotiate with him is the part that we are hanging around these teams necks. They deserve to be shamed for it. There was nothing stopping any of them from at least putting a contract in front of Lamar, and forcing the Ravens hand.

They didn't even try.

This was the most blatant collusion I've ever seen out of the NFL.

Owners didn't want to set a precedent for fully guaranteed contracts or NFL players negotiating without an agent. Plain and simple. All of these excuses are just subterfuge. There were several NFL teams that should've been jumping through hoops to sign Lamar this off-seson.

Bingo. We've never seen teams leak info to their reporters with the type of synchronization that happened with Lamar. It wasn't a coincidence.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but with this, there definitely something there.

[Ice]

This was the most blatant collusion I've ever seen out of the NFL.

Owners didn't want to set a precedent for fully guaranteed contracts or NFL players negotiating without an agent. Plain and simple. All of these excuses are just subterfuge. There were several NFL teams that should've been jumping through hoops to sign Lamar this off-seson.

Bingo. We've never seen teams leak info to their reporters with the type of synchronization that happened with Lamar. It wasn't a coincidence.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but with this, there definitely something there.

There is only something there if you are a conspiracy theorist.

Teams could have also approach KC and LAC if they wanted to pay a kings ransom for a QB.. Maybe they can now call the Texans and see how far that gets them. Should be easy because they already actually have contracts in place.

It is easy for the Conspiracy theorist look back now that Lamar actually finished the season for the first time in 3 season and act like it would have been easy.

The Ravens had no desire to trade Lamar....deal with it.

And just to be clear to all the Conspiracy Theorists out there. None of you have any idea if a GM or 10 called on Lamar.

Newflash; Teams don't trade young stud QB's in the NFL without massive compensation and very good players in return.

Old man Stafford and Russ type trades happen only if there are two willing parties.

People thinking it wasn't coincidence; Come on People; Smart people running multi-billion dollar franchises can instantly see a bright red herring.

Think about it:
How many years was Lamar negotiating with the Ravens again?
Was it collusion 31 teams were laughing at the Browns?

Step away from the ledge.

[TheTroll]

Bingo. We've never seen teams leak info to their reporters with the type of synchronization that happened with Lamar. It wasn't a coincidence.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but with this, there definitely something there.

There is only something there if you are a conspiracy theorist.

Teams could have also approach KC and LAC if they wanted to pay a kings ransom for a QB.. Maybe they can now call the Texans and see how far that gets them. Should be easy because they already actually have contracts in place.

It is easy for the Conspiracy theorist look back now that Lamar actually finished the season for the first time in 3 season and act like it would have been easy.

The Ravens had no desire to trade Lamar....deal with it.

And just to be clear to all the Conspiracy Theorists out there. None of you have any idea if a GM or 10 called on Lamar.

Newflash; Teams don't trade young stud QB's in the NFL without massive compensation and very good players in return.

Old man Stafford and Russ type trades happen only if there are two willing parties.

People thinking it wasn't coincidence; Come on People; Smart people running multi-billion dollar franchises can instantly see a bright red herring.

Think about it:
How many years was Lamar negotiating with the Ravens again?
Was it collusion 31 teams were laughing at the Browns?

Step away from the ledge.

Yep this is how i feel honestly too. These owners are two smart to allow once of the best assets (with no off field issues), to not test the waters. I think the part that makes me wonder just a tad, is how there were zero leaks to interest with Lamar. In this day and age, something always comes out...didnt in this case

[FantasyFreak]

This is tired. The Browns are idiots, the NFL's owners didn't want to give Lamar a long term guaranteed contract, because Watson's deal was egregious, and knew that the Lamar situations would make or break the norm. No smoky rooms, behind closed doors. It's pretty obvious that all you had to do was not make an offer, and it would Watson would become the anomaly, not the norm.

It just requires a like mindset, which they already had, not a wide spread act against it, with people colluding together in actual conversations etc. The Falcons put to bed rumours that media were winding up, getting Falcons hopes up. Maybe they should have made an offer that wasn't fully guaranteed, who cares? Teams outside of Baltimore never made an offer, because of Lamar's demands. Each one acted individually, based on their pre-existing principles on those deals.

You can argue whether that's right or not, but teams weren't willing to engage in multiple first and a fully guaranteed contract on their principles of how the viewed contracts.

There wasn't collusion, just that all the other NFL teams felt that the Browns weren't going to set a precedent due to their desperation, they really didn't need to send smoke signals about it. Everybody with at least half a brain in their head knew the Browns were idiots the second that happened.

[Dynasty DeLorean]

This is tired. The Browns are idiots, the NFL's owners didn't want to give Lamar a long term guaranteed contract, because Watson's deal was egregious, and knew that the Lamar situations would make or break the norm. No smoky rooms, behind closed doors. It's pretty obvious that all you had to do was not make an offer, and it would Watson would become the anomaly, not the norm.

It just requires a like mindset, which they already had, not a wide spread act against it, with people colluding together in actual conversations etc. The Falcons put to bed rumours that media were winding up, getting Falcons hopes up. Maybe they should have made an offer that wasn't fully guaranteed, who cares? Teams outside of Baltimore never made an offer, because of Lamar's demands. Each one acted individually, based on their pre-existing principles on those deals.

You can argue whether that's right or not, but teams weren't willing to engage in multiple first and a fully guaranteed contract on their principles of how the viewed contracts.

There wasn't collusion, just that all the other NFL teams felt that the Browns weren't going to set a precedent due to their desperation, they really didn't need to send smoke signals about it. Everybody with at least half a brain in their head knew the Browns were idiots the second that happened.

Eh, I mean there may not have been collusion, but you don’t become a billionaire by playing by the rules.

[killer_of_giants]

you can be a thundercunt and a thief without colluding tho

[Dynasty DeLorean]

you can be a thundercunt and a thief without colluding tho

My point was that it's silly to be 100% convinced that there was no collusion.

[killer_of_giants]

it's silly to be 100% convinced of many things. but many of them are still very likely.

personally, i wasn't shocked no one went all in for it and there were reasonable arguments for that happening, so even if there was collusion, it doesn't really matter to me. if something can only be explained by collusion, then it's collusion, if it can also be explained by many other things, it could still be, but accusations end up nowhere.

[FantasyFreak]

This is tired. The Browns are idiots, the NFL's owners didn't want to give Lamar a long term guaranteed contract, because Watson's deal was egregious, and knew that the Lamar situations would make or break the norm. No smoky rooms, behind closed doors. It's pretty obvious that all you had to do was not make an offer, and it would Watson would become the anomaly, not the norm.

It just requires a like mindset, which they already had, not a wide spread act against it, with people colluding together in actual conversations etc. The Falcons put to bed rumours that media were winding up, getting Falcons hopes up. Maybe they should have made an offer that wasn't fully guaranteed, who cares? Teams outside of Baltimore never made an offer, because of Lamar's demands. Each one acted individually, based on their pre-existing principles on those deals.

You can argue whether that's right or not, but teams weren't willing to engage in multiple first and a fully guaranteed contract on their principles of how the viewed contracts.

There wasn't collusion, just that all the other NFL teams felt that the Browns weren't going to set a precedent due to their desperation, they really didn't need to send smoke signals about it. Everybody with at least half a brain in their head knew the Browns were idiots the second that happened.

Eh, I mean there may not have been collusion, but you don’t become a billionaire by playing by the rules.

No, but they didn't need to collude in this situation. They all felt the same way about a guaranteed contract, so all they had to do was act independently. Lamar at the time, had 2 injury shortened years back to back, and hadn't played as well. The Watson deal was an outlier, by a desperate owner, and it was an egregious overpay, even at the time, not even using hindsight.

There's just really no point in going on about this stuff with no evidence. The "what if" game can be played ad nauseam. If it happened, we'll hear about it, eventually. The Gruden E mails came out, the Dolphins lost a first round pick for tampering etc. In today's digital age, if there was collusion on this issue, the evidence will eventually come out.

[dynastyninja]

Outright coordinated collusion is probably unlikely. The combination of the contract and draft capital required made it difficult to do anything I’m sure. Still felt like a mistake to me. Hard to believe no one was interested in a QB of his caliber.

[FantasyFreak]

Outright coordinated collusion is probably unlikely. The combination of the contract and draft capital required made it difficult to do anything I’m sure. Still felt like a mistake to me. Hard to believe no one was interested in a QB of his caliber.

They were, as Murph said, just not at the cost. Again, he was coming off 2 injury shortened years, and hadn't played all that well. It's hard to say if he'd played for Arthur Smith, he would have been the front runner for MVP. In Baltimore, he has a HC, teammates, structure that he's familiar with, and is comfortable with. The addition of the WR's and a new OC helped. Take all those things and throw him in a completely different scenario, and he's still got the same talent, but he may not function in that new scenario as well.

We'll never know how Mahomes would have done without Andy, Tyreek, Kelce, in say Chicago, but it's not far fetched to think he wouldn't have thrown 50 TD's in his first year as a starter. He'd still be the same talent, but that's only part of the equation.

I think it worked out for the league, in the end. Lamar staying a Raven is likely a good thing.

[Ice]

Outright coordinated collusion is probably unlikely. The combination of the contract and draft capital required made it difficult to do anything I’m sure. Still felt like a mistake to me. Hard to believe no one was interested in a QB of his caliber.

There were and are tons of teams interested in Lamar, Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Herbert and a few others.

Why does that matter? No one was or is getting those type of players at the prices that would be demanded.

I can't believe anyone really thinks any team would have stepped step up. Anyone who thinks this was collusion doesn't really grasp what Super Star QB's cost. The Ravens knew exactly what they were doing as one the best front offices in the entire league if not the best.

Lamar was the one who set the terms of wanting 100% guaranteed contract in excess of 230 million over a short time period.

There was....Lets all count together now.... ONE IDIOT OWNER in Cleveland.... BTW the TEXANS are so Elated there was.... The other 31 owners didn't collude in any fashion; They were too busy laughing or making fun of the Browns owner at their parties. They actually were simply smarter than the now Flacco Led Browns.

At some point the Conspiracy Theorist should simply look at the QB demands over a couple of seasons who then felt empowered by an outlier contract.

I get some will do anything to blame anyone but the players for everything but this is isn't an argument that will help.

As expected, Lamar signed a new contract with the team that owned his rights.

[FantasyFreak]

Outright coordinated collusion is probably unlikely. The combination of the contract and draft capital required made it difficult to do anything I’m sure. Still felt like a mistake to me. Hard to believe no one was interested in a QB of his caliber.

There were and are tons of teams interested in Lamar, Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Herbert and a few others.

Why does that matter? No one was or is getting those type of players at the prices that would be demanded.

I can't believe anyone really thinks any team would have stepped step up. Anyone who thinks this was collusion doesn't really grasp what Super Star QB's cost. The Ravens knew exactly what they were doing as one the best front offices in the entire league if not the best.

Lamar was the one who set the terms of wanting 100% guaranteed contract in excess of 230 million over a short time period.

There was....Lets all count together now.... ONE IDIOT OWNER in Cleveland.... BTW the TEXANS are so Elated there was.... The other 31 owners didn't collude in any fashion; They were too busy laughing or making fun of the Browns owner at their parties. They actually were simply smarter than the now Flacco Led Browns.

At some point the Conspiracy Theorist should simply look at the QB demands over a couple of seasons who then felt empowered by an outlier contract.

I get some will do anything to blame anyone but the players for everything but this is isn't an argument that will help.

As expected, Lamar signed a new contract with the team that owned his rights.

...have the executive of the year. IMO.

[mild]

No further questions at this time, your honor.

#MVP