Thanks to the thumb injury he suffered in Week 8, there is a chance Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s season is over. In the bigger picture, it is doubtful Jackson’s tenure with the Ravens will end after 2026, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Jackson is under contract in Baltimore through 2027, meaning he can’t leave on his own in the offseason. However, because the sides couldn’t reach an extension after the Ravens restructured his deal last spring, Jackson is due to count a whopping $84.43MM against the cap next year. That number will come down if the Ravens and Jackson hammer out an agreement next offseason, and it appears that has a legitimate shot to happen.
The “hope” is that Jackson will remain a Raven for the foreseeable future, potentially through the end of the ninth-year veteran’s career, according to Rapoport. Meanwhile, James Palmer of Amazon adds that Baltimore is willing to make the two-time MVP the highest-paid player in NFL history. That was also the case before the season, but it’s notable that the Ravens are undeterred despite a second straight injury-shortened year for Jackson. He missed four full games in 2025, which played a key role in the Ravens missing the playoffs, and will sit out at least seven this season.
For now, highest-paid honors belong to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champion who inked a restructured extension worth $504.75MM over eight years last summer. Mahomes is collecting upward of $63MM per year, while Cowboys QB Dak Prescott is in second with a $60MM average annual value. Jackson is 12th in the league in AAV ($52MM) on the five-year, $260MM extension he signed in 2023, though his pact came together when the ever-rising salary cap was $76.4MM lower than it is now. It also materialized two months after the self-represented Jackson requested a trade. Three years later, there is nothing to suggest Jackson wants out of Baltimore, per Rapoport. If that changes, the soon-to-be 30-year-old’s no-trade clause would allow him to veto any deal.
The Ravens’ next attempt to extend Jackson will make for a fascinating offseason storyline, but we may not have seen the last of him this year. The team isn’t ruling out a late-season return, Palmer relays. Jackson, who Palmer says has yet to undergo surgery, will be eligible to come off IR in Week 14.
After losing Jackson for at least four games and Tyler Huntley to a season-ending turf toe injury last week, the Ravens turned to third-string rookie Joe Fagnano against the Jaguars on Thursday night. It went poorly for Baltimore, which lost a 33-10 blowout and fell to 4-5. The good news for the Ravens is that the impending acquisition of the Cardinals’ Jacoby Brissett should give them a better chance to stay in the playoff hunt. Best-case scenario for the Ravens: Brissett will perform well enough to keep them in the race before passing the baton to Jackson in mid-December.
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