Lamar Jackson is unlikely to be seen as a target for the Indianapolis Colts during the next few weeks, despite his recent issues with the Baltimore Ravens, Peter King has claimed.
The situation between the Baltimore Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson hasn’t exactly been smooth and peaceful for some time now, with Jackson not happy heading into last season with the contract offer the Ravens had for him, and going into this past season ‘betting on himself’ to try and prove that he was worth more.
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However following his season-ending injury in December (his second in the space of two seasons), things have taken a bit of a turn for the worst, with the Ravens dropping a petty big hint that they are prepared to move on without him when they placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on him, a tag which allows teams to come in an negotiate a long-term deal for him, which the Ravens will then have the chance to match, and if Jackson signed with that new team, the Ravens would receive two first-round picks for him.
And Jackson took the conflict one step further last week as he went on a rant on social media about how he was treated whilst also revealing that he asked the team to trade him (noting that he asked them for the trade before they put the tag on him). The problem though is that teams have been rather reluctant to put in an offer for him so far.
Broadcaster Nick Wright has floated the idea that the Indianapolis Colts might be a team that would consider him, but that would come after the draft so that they don’t have to give up this year’s picks. However Peter King doesn’t think that Jackson will be on the Colts’ minds full stop.
Indianapolis Colts not looking to add Lamar Jackson to the quarterback carousel
Writing in his Football Morning In America column, King claimed that even though the Colts are desperate to get a solid option at quarterback, Jackson is not likely to be on their list of options:
That brings us to Lamar Jackson. After Jackson tweeted last week that he’d asked to be traded, there was speculation the Colts would be interested, in part because of the desperation of owner Jim Irsay. And if the guarantees weren’t stupid, I think the Colts would be interested. My bet is the Ravens would take the fourth pick in the draft, solely, for Jackson. But I can’t see the Colts getting involved with Jackson having the injury history of the last two years (34 percent of the Ravens’ offensive snaps missed in ’21 and ’22, with Jackson starting and finishing one of Baltimore’s 12 December/January games in the last two years) and wanting a fully guaranteed contract.
Lamar Jackson losing more and more possible options
The Colts haven’t had a reliable option at quarterback since Andrew Luck retired, and given Jackson’s injury history, there are no guarantees that he would be around long enough to stop the cycle, so there should be no reason for the Colts to give up what precious draft capital they have when they need to fix a lot of problems, one of which would be a 50/50 chance of working out at best.
The way this is looking for Jackson, is that he isn’t going to be left with a lot of choice, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh might be the only one in the league that is still on Jackson’s side. So it’s time for Jackson to put his ego to one side and go back to the Ravens, because they might be his last hope of remaining in the league.