Everything Lamar Jackson could want will soon be sitting on a runway in South Florida, just waiting for him to get on board.

Whenever the Ravens whittle their head coaching candidates to their final four or five, owner Steve Bisciotti has offered the use of one of his private jets to take his franchise quarterback from his offseason home to Owings Mills to be a part of the process. Although Bisciotti said Jackson will have “a lot of say but no power,” it’s a rare opportunity for an active player to be involved in hiring his next head coach.

Does anyone actually believe Jackson has no power? Me neither.

“I said to Lamar last night, when they call me up from Florida, you better get your ass up here, too,” Bisciotti said. “Because, if you want to do the interviewing, these are going to be full-day meetings like they were 18 years ago.”

Advertise with us

We’ve wondered for years when Jackson will be ready to take the next step as a player and lead Baltimore back to the Super Bowl. But this invitation by Bisciotti (as coarse as “get your ass up here” sounds) is also about reaching the next level — as one of the most important figures in a franchise.

Jackson has been that for some time, even when he’s been reluctant to acknowledge his leverage over his team. Starting with the coaching search, the next few months are a challenge for him to start acting like the power player he is.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a defense of Jackson because I felt his greatness was being taken for granted. Before this disappointing season ended, he validated that point of view by nearly knocking off the Steelers with highlight plays in the passing game.

But I also have my critiques of Jackson, and this is the biggest one: He has difficulty acknowledging and seemingly accepting how different his role is from his teammates’ — when it comes to his position, his salary and his hand in the franchise’s future.

In the last look we had at Jackson after losing to Pittsburgh, he couldn’t even offer a partial endorsement of John Harbaugh when asked directly if he wanted to see him back. “You’re asking me about next year,” he said. “I’m so caught up in what just happened tonight. I can’t focus on that right now, I just told you.”

Advertise with us

Jackson’s inability to say something even slightly endearing about the only head coach he’s ever had in the NFL — even if he had just said, “I love what Coach Harbaugh and I have done together” — rings out much more loudly than what any other player in the locker room did or didn’t say.

Jackson has sometimes ducked that reality, even though there is nothing he or anyone else can do to change that his opinion matters more than anyone else’s.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson keeps for a first down in the first quarter as the Ravens play the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Penn., on Sunday.
Jackson can be as elusive off the field as he is on it. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)

Bisciotti hinted at this when he called Jackson “really a nonconfrontational person,” but there have been times when “nonconfrontational” slips toward avoidant. When asked before the season if he could sign an extension — which the Ravens need him to do this offseason to have the salary cap flexibility to build around him — during the year, Jackson deferred comment.

“The season is here. I’m not worried about that,” he said. “You would’ve been better off asking me that during training camp, but I’m locked in, man. I’m ready for the season to start. That time will come.”

The problem with Jackson continually shoving off the questions is there is no one else to ask. He is his own agent. He negotiates his own contracts.

Advertise with us

Even if he doesn’t answer media questions about his intentions with his deals, Jackson has no one to defer to if his teammates — who also need him to extend before they can make their deals — wonder what he’s doing with his contract. In this way, the evasiveness that works so well for Jackson on the field can work against him when he is off of it.

This offseason, he has to step up in a big way.

Jackson has to lock in to the coaching search and give the Ravens an idea of which people he can work with — which leaders jell with his on-field vision and off-field style.

In firing Harbaugh, Bisciotti showed that Jackson is a more powerful stakeholder in the franchise than whoever calls the plays. The least the star quarterback can do in return is give the leaders an idea of who he can partner with in the next era — finding a way to consistently get the best version of Jackson is arguably the biggest task for the next head coach.

Jackson also has to agree to a contract extension. The last time he negotiated with the Ravens, the talks were fraught and peaked with a surprise trade request right as Harbaugh was sitting down with reporters.

Advertise with us

Everyone finally made up with a record-setting contract right before the NFL draft in April, but Bisciotti and general manager Eric DeCosta don’t want a repeat performance of the drama. Although Bisciotti somewhat stuck his foot in his mouth in the last negotiation cycle by telling reporters he wished the Cleveland Browns hadn’t done a fully guaranteed deal with Deshaun Watson, this time the owner seemed to have clear terms.

The Ravens hope to renegotiate Lamar Jackson’s contract extension to give them more flexibility with other offseason moves. (Jerry Jackson/The Banner)

“We want another window, and Lamar knows that,” he said. “The urgency of that matters to me because we’ve got free agents, and I don’t want to go into free agency with that hanging over our head. And I made that clear to Lamar, and I think he was very appreciative of my stance.”

The stance Bisciotti has is that he wants to win a Super Bowl. The private jet, the invite to coaching interviews, the offer to get a deal done by March are all branches of the same invitation. If Jackson locks in to this process and locks in to winning, he can go into this fall with a coach he’s excited to work with and a team that has a shot at a title.

The sooner he gets a deal done, the better his surrounding cast can be. That’s power.

Jackson’s critics have prodded at perceived lapses in his work ethic, from skipping organized team activities to missing practices during the season. But this offer from Bisciotti goes above all that to offer Jackson a true gut check: Do you want to win as badly as the owner does? Prove it.

Advertise with us

I don’t think any other NFL team (or its owner) can offer Jackson what the Ravens are putting out there. It is a chance to win a championship. It is having a big say over his circumstances. It is a stake in the franchise’s future, while also getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years.

Bisciotti said he told Jackson of his flight offer: “‘I hope you take it.’ And [Jackson] said, ‘Yes, sir. I think I will.’ So we’ll find out.”

All Jackson has to do is climb the steps and buckle in. Once he shows he’s on board, this flight can take him wherever he wants to go.