The Baltimore Ravens have every intention of keeping Lamar Jackson.
That was made quite clear a few ways, the first of which was the Ravens firing John Harbaugh, who reportedly had a rocky relationship with his quarterback.
The other indication came from owner Steve Bisciotti, who made it quite clear he wants to see action on Jackson's contract by March.
To be clear, Jackson isn't a free agent, but he does account for a $74.5 million cap hit in 2026 that the Ravens must bring down with a new deal.
While that's all well and good, it remains to be seen if Jackson even wants to stay in Baltimore after yet another disappointing season.
Even if he does, the contract situation could make things tricky and if there are major problems in that process that drag it out past the self-imposed deadline Bisciotti has, it stands to reason the two sides could part ways.
Raiders predicted to trade for Lamar Jackson
If Jackson is made available via trade, one unnamed NFL executive ESPN's Jeremy Fowler spoke to predicts the Las Vegas Raiders will trade for him.
"It just seems like there's been some consternation there with Lamar and the Ravens, and this would be the ultimate Mark Davis move," the NFL personnel evaluator said to Fowler. "I'm not even convinced everybody with Vegas would be on board with it, but it would instantly solve their quarterback problems."
The Raiders are no doubt a logical landing spot for Jackson, and there have been multiple reports suggesting the team could make a play for him.
The Geno Smith experiment was a total disaster and it stands to reason the Raiders might cut or trade him this offseason, with the former being more likely.
Las Vegas owns the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, but the only viable option at quarterback in that spot is Indiana's Fernando Mendoza, who has yet to officially declare.
If Mendoza does not declare, the Raiders are going to explore the trade and free-agent markets for a quarterback, which is where Jackson could come into play.
Jackson would be a huge upgrade for the Raiders and would add instant credibility to the offense while also speeding up the process of the Raiders' attempt to turn themselves into a legitimate contender.
From there, the Raiders would have to sign Jackson to an extension to lower his cap hit and even then the team would have a boatload of cap space to add talent around him.
While Jackson would be a massive get for the Raiders, we tend to believe that they would prefer to roll the dice on Mendoza if presented with that opportunity.
This isn't a knock on Jackson, though.
The fact of the matter is, the Raiders need to rebuild this thing from the ground up after trying and failing with the quick-fix method in recent years.
Drafting Mendoza rather than sending the Ravens multiple high-value draft picks is the best way to go about that.
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