Speaker 1: Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass podcast. It was a
Speaker 1: big day in Baltimore's quarterback Lamar Jackson was in the
Speaker 1: building to put the pen to paper on a new
Speaker 1: five year contract. He was fired up to sign that
Speaker 1: deal and remain a Raven for the long term. He
Speaker 1: joined head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Eric Tacassa
Speaker 1: during a press conference at the Under Armed Performance Center
Speaker 1: this afternoon. So go ahead and check it out.
Speaker 2: We got packed house. Thanks coming everybody. We've had some
Speaker 2: we've had some good press conferences this year, and we've
Speaker 2: had some bad press conferences this year. This is a
Speaker 2: great press conference. Very very excited, thrilled to announce a
Speaker 2: five year contract extension with our quarterback Lamar Jackson. They
Speaker 2: say the best things come to those who wait. We
Speaker 2: waited for a while and here we are.
Speaker 3: John, very excited, can't wait to get started. It's it
Speaker 3: has been a long way, but I think we're all
Speaker 3: in the same place all along, and uh, we're all
Speaker 3: in the same place going forward. Can't wait to get
Speaker 3: to work.
Speaker 4: Mark. Well, all I have to say is today I
Speaker 4: don't have any popcorn. But during count if you guys
Speaker 4: have great questions I'll say, I'll put it on Coach
Speaker 4: John uh. You guys get to come to the house
Speaker 4: with the peers, with the players and not you know,
Speaker 4: and have a good time that everybody is that your house,
Speaker 4: in my house, your house. Okay, only the good questions,
Speaker 4: only the good questions invited.
Speaker 5: La mar uh In Marsh you tweeted out chats we
Speaker 5: wanted it. Really a month later you signed, you know,
Speaker 5: a record deal.
Speaker 4: What changed during that time, mister Jamison, you know what
Speaker 4: we're gonna get, gonna be invited to the house. You
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. That couldn't avot. I got you
Speaker 4: every But you know what, today, we're gonna keep it
Speaker 4: about the future. You know, I'm not really worried about
Speaker 4: what happened in the past. We gonna keep it about
Speaker 4: these next five years and keep it about you know
Speaker 4: what's going on today. You know, it's a great day,
Speaker 4: great day. Just signed with the guys up here. That's
Speaker 4: all I don't focused on right.
Speaker 6: Now, aside from the Trader request. I mean, this is
Speaker 6: a long process. Eric's talked about it and you guys
Speaker 6: hadn't share details. But but how did you've been eliable
Speaker 6: for the two years for an extension. What didn't change
Speaker 6: that this was a turning point that you were able
Speaker 6: to get a deal done over the last week.
Speaker 4: H We you know, we just had some some you know,
Speaker 4: mutual agreements and in the terms and stuff like that,
Speaker 4: and you know it just fit, it fit to both
Speaker 4: of us and that's why we're here right now.
Speaker 5: So tomorrow, where are you gonna be? Uh at?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: What do you start the future?
Speaker 4: What do you mean what I'm gonna be oh Ota,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be in. I'm'a be in soon. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: be here soon.
Speaker 7: Oh more?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 5: How can you describe you in your offense and services?
Speaker 5: And you you're new all as.
Speaker 4: Uh Actually, coach Todd Monkin reached out to me. You know,
Speaker 4: we spoke a couple of times, and you know, I
Speaker 4: heard from the guys that the office is looking pretty smooth.
Speaker 4: And I just got my iPad a couple of days ago,
Speaker 4: and from what I see, it looks it looks different
Speaker 4: and I'm liking it so far. The more.
Speaker 8: What is it needed to change in the office and
Speaker 8: some of the creations Maybe then Odell did any of
Speaker 8: that plan to swaying you to wanna restart.
Speaker 4: The wan, well, we we been negotiating, like we really
Speaker 4: didn't never stop negotiating, you know, we was always keeping
Speaker 4: the contact. Ever reach out to me a lot and
Speaker 4: you know, uh, you know coming back coach rechot to
Speaker 4: me and we you know, go back and forth with that.
Speaker 4: But definitely having O'Dell and you know those guys you
Speaker 4: know reach out to me as well. It's like, man,
Speaker 4: we need you here. And it was like, you know,
Speaker 4: I wanna be there. It's not like I wanna leave anyways.
Speaker 4: It was you know business the more.
Speaker 5: What does it mean to.
Speaker 4: You that John and Eric here never faltered in saying that.
Speaker 5: They've wanted you back here and they wanted did you
Speaker 5: install you as their quarterbacks?
Speaker 2: Is there?
Speaker 8: And Eric af like never faltered in the same wealth
Speaker 8: the line track negotiations that you are their guy.
Speaker 5: What does that mean to you that it never seemed to.
Speaker 4: Question that that you could be by Yeah, it means
Speaker 4: a lot, you know, just to have you know, guys,
Speaker 4: your head coach and your gym w wanted you to
Speaker 4: be here and believing in you, believing you can help
Speaker 4: your team achieve the the almighty uh ultimate goal, you know,
Speaker 4: and within football and the NFL football like that. It's like,
Speaker 4: you know, I I wouldn't wanna go no other place.
Speaker 5: And Lamart ericat some really nice things to say about
Speaker 5: your negotiating style as your own man. What would you
Speaker 5: say the.
Speaker 7: People going forward representing themselves and how much did you
Speaker 7: enjoy the process of going back.
Speaker 5: And forth with DC?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's a it's a business. Uh, it's a
Speaker 4: business at the end of the day. And if if
Speaker 4: you gonn if you gonna represent yourself, you know, you
Speaker 4: gotta you gotta have a strong mind. I wouldn't say
Speaker 4: you get out there and put your feelings in it,
Speaker 4: cause it's not about feelings. You know. You can't take
Speaker 4: things with a oh yeah, what you said. I don't
Speaker 4: agree with this. You know. It's like what they feel
Speaker 4: is how you feel.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's a grown man thing at the end
Speaker 4: of the day. So you got to be a grown
Speaker 4: man if you can hand a business.
Speaker 5: At what point.
Speaker 9: At your decisions to use a non exclusive tad and what.
Speaker 10: Extent you were worried an office was coming and you
Speaker 10: went deplayer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a tough decision. I think we spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time thinking about it, praying on it,
Speaker 2: trying to as a group, you know, deciding what's best
Speaker 2: for the club, and in the end, you know, we
Speaker 2: just I guess we just kind of felt like it.
Speaker 4: It was it was the best.
Speaker 2: Thing for Lamar to have the opportunity to kind of
Speaker 2: get a sense of what was important to him and
Speaker 2: he could have conversations if he wanted with other teams
Speaker 2: to see what his value might be. And he could
Speaker 2: get a chance to talk to other coaches or gms
Speaker 2: if he wanted to to kind of get a sense
Speaker 2: for the landscape. And I guess you're looking at the
Speaker 2: other the exclusive you know, it's kind of binding in
Speaker 2: a lot of ways, and so you know, you know,
Speaker 2: free agency is a chance for players to go out
Speaker 2: and kind of see what their value could be potentially,
Speaker 2: and any end, that was the decision that we made,
Speaker 2: hoping that we would be sitting here today that at
Speaker 2: some point over the coming months, you know, and we
Speaker 2: had our moments, but over the coming months we would
Speaker 2: have a chance to negotiate again and get a long
Speaker 2: term deal done, which proved to be the case.
Speaker 8: Well, we moral about the type of player you are,
Speaker 8: but the agent, not many of us know what type
Speaker 8: of what type of age Lamar Jackson is.
Speaker 5: How would you describe Mamar and the agent?
Speaker 4: Well, just just a business man, That's how I describe them.
Speaker 4: You know, nothing more, nothing less, you know, because it's
Speaker 4: different from just playing football. You know, it's you gotta
Speaker 4: put that, you know the game outside, put put that
Speaker 4: in one part of your life. In this. You know,
Speaker 4: you gotta speak to a grown man, you know, with
Speaker 4: millions and millions of dollars in understand what excuse me
Speaker 4: terms and you know, different languages and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: You gotta understand what you're doing. And if you're not
Speaker 4: doing that, I feel badesday.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you were watching the Celtics game,
Speaker 5: but Eric was pretty down. When Trey Young hime back
Speaker 5: in the corner. He said, then you you texted him
Speaker 5: and said I think we can get something done here.
Speaker 5: What led to your text and what led your SpongeBob?
Speaker 4: Actually, when when I got my email from Eric and
Speaker 4: I was going over it, I was liking the language,
Speaker 4: you know, and I texted him. I was not watching
Speaker 4: the game, so I texted him and I was like,
Speaker 4: you know, like like you said, I can get something,
Speaker 4: We can get something done. He was like, you know,
Speaker 4: you just made it. You know, you just made my night.
Speaker 4: You know, my Celtics just lost, so you probably just
Speaker 4: made my night. I'm like, all right. Then I get
Speaker 4: on social media and I said, Trey Young here the three.
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, this is what he was talking about.
Speaker 5: What was that a message?
Speaker 4: Definitely the SpongeBob message with definitely a message to the
Speaker 4: fan base. Let him know, you know, we moving on up.
Speaker 8: You.
Speaker 10: Uh, what did you learn about yourself in this process?
Speaker 10: It's been a more probably obviously, uh that you you
Speaker 10: just feeling forward to second wag? Did you ever think
Speaker 10: that this wouldn't work out?
Speaker 4: Uh? It's not not anything that I learned about myself.
Speaker 4: You know, I've been knew you know, what what I
Speaker 4: was capable of, and I I thought, you know, we
Speaker 4: would get the process done. You know. I I didn't
Speaker 4: have a doubt in my mind, you know, cause, like
Speaker 4: they said, they loved me. You know, I love being here.
Speaker 4: You know, I love my teammates and I love fan base.
Speaker 4: I really loved the fan base on my teammates, you know,
Speaker 4: So I didn't have a doubt.
Speaker 5: Really, Mary, you said there whether you were in a
Speaker 5: doubt on my mind.
Speaker 11: That you know, era is a Uh there was a
Speaker 11: point where you guys just weren't talking.
Speaker 5: So what was it? What was it like you during
Speaker 5: half period?
Speaker 4: Oh, I had a grind.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 4: I probably didn't wanna talk cause I was grinding.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 4: I did have a PCR injury, so I was like
Speaker 4: trying to get that, get that all the way squared away,
Speaker 4: you know, just fully recovering from that. And that's probably
Speaker 4: when I wasn't return you know, text messages and stuff
Speaker 4: like that, cause I probably be tired after workout and
Speaker 4: I wake up late at night and you know, all
Speaker 4: type of people texting my phone, so I probably won't
Speaker 4: reached back out. But we got it done, So I'm
Speaker 4: not rid about it right now.
Speaker 6: When were you fully When were you fully recovered from
Speaker 6: a knee injury?
Speaker 5: And how much should it bother you?
Speaker 6: There was so much outside shatter you?
Speaker 5: Help you work?
Speaker 7: Did you play?
Speaker 5: Was a contract related?
Speaker 4: How that bosh? I probably got better like probably a
Speaker 4: month ago for real, a month ago, And it really
Speaker 4: didn't bother me, you know, cause they don't really like
Speaker 4: people don't know what's really going on, you know, they
Speaker 4: they be trying to reach and pull and you know,
Speaker 4: try to see if the club was in or what
Speaker 4: I come out of said stuff like that, you know,
Speaker 4: but we keep it in house. You know, it's not
Speaker 4: anyone's business but ours.
Speaker 12: Did it ever weigh on you playing in a contract year?
Speaker 12: Did you feel only pressure to perform being in a
Speaker 12: contract year?
Speaker 4: Absolutely not. I've been performing since twenty eighteen, you know,
Speaker 4: so not at all, not at all. You know, I
Speaker 4: want to win. I'm a competitive you know, there's nothing
Speaker 4: more I wanna do them being out there on that field.
Speaker 4: So nah, not at all.
Speaker 6: More.
Speaker 8: There were reports that you were active in them prove
Speaker 8: the process of Hodell that from junior you though you
Speaker 8: had not signed a deal in the future.
Speaker 5: Fatia was in lous Uh it is true?
Speaker 12: And if so, what went into you still wanting to
Speaker 12: bring a player in knowing that you hadn't signed a
Speaker 12: deal here yet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've seen uh Odell Becke was r you know,
Speaker 4: recover from his injury and stuff like that, and you
Speaker 4: know he reached out to me. I'm like you thinking
Speaker 4: about coming to us, you know, like cause I'm still
Speaker 4: part of the Ravens. Like I wasn't saying like nah,
Speaker 4: I don't wanna go there, like that's not my team,
Speaker 4: you know it was. I'm like I was hyped about it.
Speaker 4: You know, I got Richard, I got dued, I got
Speaker 4: marred likely, I got all these guys in there in
Speaker 4: a new addition like him, like you know, with his
Speaker 4: r U resume, is like, yeah, we can you know,
Speaker 4: we can prove our receiver room and we can go somewhere.
Speaker 4: So I was definitely like hyped about that.
Speaker 5: Why we saw that, you know, you're giving well, mom,
Speaker 5: after you created the terms of contract and you keeping
Speaker 5: a tight circle, who who are you leaning on in this.
Speaker 11: Process working as your own agent and w or did.
Speaker 5: You kind of find the most supportant fun of people around? Uh?
Speaker 4: You know, she's my manager, you know, so I I
Speaker 4: felt like she managed me very well, you know, don't
Speaker 4: you think so? And she did a pretty good job,
Speaker 4: you know. You know, if anything, you know, we'll just
Speaker 4: go back and forth, you know, in terms and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. Like I said, the language is gonna overrun
Speaker 4: the numbers and stuff like that, so and over trumpt
Speaker 4: numbers and stuff like that. So it was just me
Speaker 4: and her piggyback off of each other, and we got
Speaker 4: it deal done.
Speaker 10: You know, obviously you know Eric pretty well and the
Speaker 10: girl should do with the ravenss for had a let
Speaker 10: hold familiarity.
Speaker 5: What was it like when you were able to talk
Speaker 5: to other teams to learn about how the teams do business.
Speaker 4: Like, I really don't like to be honest with you.
Speaker 4: I really didn't care for other teams really, I just
Speaker 4: really wanted to get something down here, like I wanted
Speaker 4: to be here. It was like, Man, Okay, other team's cool,
Speaker 4: but I wanna be a Raven like I said, I
Speaker 4: said some twenty eighteen, you know, I think it was
Speaker 4: April twenty six if I'm not mistaken, And I meant that,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm standing on that until I get it done.
Speaker 4: So I really wanted to get this done before anything,
Speaker 4: before I even wanna before my time up and branch
Speaker 4: off somewhere else. You know, I really wanna finish my
Speaker 4: career hair on one super Bowl here.
Speaker 5: So that's what I meant, La, mar Are you talking
Speaker 5: about the guys you already have?
Speaker 9: You guys had to take Flowers in first round the draft,
Speaker 9: and he talked to say, what do you know about him?
Speaker 5: How say you work with him?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they reached out to me. You know, we spoke.
Speaker 4: We were supposed to work out, but you know, I
Speaker 4: was working out and doing other stuff, so I couldn't
Speaker 4: really have time to And he's gonna be here for
Speaker 4: the uh Ricky mini camp so probably when he get
Speaker 4: back to foot the man and him or get the
Speaker 4: rick and I'm very excited. You know, he he's doing
Speaker 4: well known down there in South Florida, you know, from
Speaker 4: youth football on up, and you know it's it's proven
Speaker 4: he's here now.
Speaker 5: Or you said in the video when you agreed field
Speaker 5: that there was a lot he's used expressed.
Speaker 4: I think he said.
Speaker 9: She said, was there a misconception about these talks and
Speaker 9: about this whole situation that in particular bothered me?
Speaker 4: No, it was just like what are you gonna do?
Speaker 4: What are you guys doing? I see people throwing shots
Speaker 4: at the ravens, Like, what are you guys doing? They
Speaker 4: throwing shots at me? You don't know what you're doing?
Speaker 4: You know, that's the he say. She say, That's what
Speaker 4: I That's what I meant by that.
Speaker 12: Whether there were a lot of questions in the you know,
Speaker 12: some doubts about like your decisions reply yourself, what do
Speaker 12: you feel like you.
Speaker 5: Proved to be able to get this plain?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 4: I don't really. I didn't really like do this to
Speaker 4: prove anyone wrong or really care about what anyone had
Speaker 4: to say. You know, it's anything I had to prove
Speaker 4: myself right, you know, like I know what I'm doing
Speaker 4: and I felt I did the right thing.
Speaker 12: How did you train yourself to sort of hell that
Speaker 12: side of your career.
Speaker 4: Just keep your emotions outside of business. That's the best
Speaker 4: way to do it.
Speaker 5: Eric and John, this is a pretty historical in franchise histories.
Speaker 5: What does the city against you.
Speaker 4: Can say to me teach good?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm sure it does have a lot
Speaker 3: of significant spirit. And I appreciate the magnitude of the question.
Speaker 3: Probably like about ten years from now on tomorrow and
Speaker 3: you're still playing and I'm done, I'll probably give it
Speaker 3: some thought. But my thought right now is the significance
Speaker 3: going forward. Just like Lamar said, you know, let's let's
Speaker 3: get to work and let's get ready to go play.
Speaker 3: Go play some ball, you know, and play some great football.
Speaker 3: Put our offense together with Todd and Lamar and the
Speaker 3: rest of the guys, and that's as a coach Man,
Speaker 3: that's how you think right now, That's how I'm thinking
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 5: Man. You know you always wanted to be here, to
Speaker 5: be ray. We're just curious.
Speaker 10: Did you get approached by other teams in this process
Speaker 10: with an offer? Did you consider it?
Speaker 4: H teams reached out, but it was like not, I
Speaker 4: didn't really, Like I said before, I really didn't care
Speaker 4: about other teams like I wanted to be here. You know,
Speaker 4: That's what it is.
Speaker 1: Mark.
Speaker 5: Did you did you feel some urgency to get this
Speaker 5: wrapped up?
Speaker 7: Now?
Speaker 9: I mean did you did you want to get it
Speaker 9: done the off season or would you have been fine
Speaker 9: play an enfranchise if it if it had come to that.
Speaker 4: If the number wasn't what you wanted it to be,
Speaker 4: absolutely wanted to get it done because I was just
Speaker 4: tired of going back and forth about it. You know,
Speaker 4: it's we've been doing it for years, you know, but
Speaker 4: it's like, you know, the time that come and you
Speaker 4: know the numbers were right and we was all satisfied. Eric,
Speaker 4: What was this stretch like for you?
Speaker 8: It seems really successful and you have a lot on
Speaker 8: your play with all the players you've signed the draft, Lamar,
Speaker 8: how was it compartmentalizing and dealing with everything.
Speaker 5: Do you have a pretty much run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just have faith in the process. We have
Speaker 2: great people working upstairs that help in a lot of
Speaker 2: different ways. Coaches and scouts, cap salary, cap analytics, people
Speaker 2: that helped day to day help me keep me focused
Speaker 2: on point my family. You know, it's a great stabilizer
Speaker 2: for me as well. And you just you just remain
Speaker 2: positive and hopeful. And I guess my mindset was trying
Speaker 2: to do something positive every single day. Come in and
Speaker 2: get something done every single day, evaluations, contracts, negotiations, finding
Speaker 2: cap space, whatever it was. Try to do something positive
Speaker 2: every single day. And I believed if we could do that,
Speaker 2: then we would build momentum and good things would happen.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Ravens press Pass podcast. Makes you
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Speaker 1: Now let's get back to the Lamar Jackson press Her.
Speaker 7: Well, Mar, you mentioned uh your mother as your manager,
Speaker 7: uh trust hers more to your relationship with her, cause
Speaker 7: you describe your mother's influence on you getting your life,
Speaker 7: what it means to your family to come up on
Speaker 7: this sort of reward financially, and your plans.
Speaker 5: From mother's there helping with her.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, She's a huge influence on my life just
Speaker 4: by you know, her just raising four of us, you know,
Speaker 4: m my my younger brother, my two sisters. I'm the oldest,
Speaker 4: me being the oldest. And just see how she grind
Speaker 4: and work without complaining, not wanting me to get a job,
Speaker 4: you know, telling me to focus on football and she
Speaker 4: gonna take care of everything else. Just seeing that and
Speaker 4: was like, you know, if she can do that, I
Speaker 4: can do anything. You know, she raising four kids on
Speaker 4: her own, not aksing for a handout, not reaching out
Speaker 4: to people like she, oh, I need this right here
Speaker 4: to pay my bills. I never heard her complain about
Speaker 4: anything like that. I just see her go go to work,
Speaker 4: wake up early in the morning, go to work, come
Speaker 4: back late at night from working, or I'm dropping her
Speaker 4: off the or stuff like that. It was like, man,
Speaker 4: this woman's a superhero like to me. You know, that
Speaker 4: was part of the influence right there. And what was
Speaker 4: your other question? What was your other question?
Speaker 5: What it means to your mother or you say, and
Speaker 5: your family to to be rewarded in this way. You
Speaker 5: can again the mother's day playing.
Speaker 4: It means a lot to my family and myself, you know,
Speaker 4: just from you know, being being in a place where
Speaker 4: we wasn't before. You know, just you know, another step, uh,
Speaker 4: another step in stone of anything for Mother's Day. Uh,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I think I I I got a
Speaker 4: gift already. I think she's satisfied right now.
Speaker 2: Or something.
Speaker 4: Uh. I probably give your car, cause give us some
Speaker 4: flowers or something. Some flowers. Women love flowers. They can't
Speaker 4: go wrong with flowers.
Speaker 8: Is that true? Oh?
Speaker 4: No, you know these days, you know, one on them shows,
Speaker 4: she was like, I don't know, does.
Speaker 5: It mean to you? I mean, it was five years
Speaker 5: ago when you went through the old your housets and beating.
Speaker 5: People were questioning whether you could even play. We're back and.
Speaker 2: Now today you're the highest peed player.
Speaker 5: What does that mean to you?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 4: Like I said before, you know, they're just proving, you know,
Speaker 4: proving myself right. You know, it's not about what people
Speaker 4: say and this and that. You know, he says, she
Speaker 4: say back to that. You know, it's it's about believing
Speaker 4: in yourself at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 4: keeping God first, because you know, without him there's no
Speaker 4: Lamar Jackson. I'm gonna tell you that now you know,
Speaker 4: I kept him first at all times, no matter what
Speaker 4: I went through, no matter when it looked like my
Speaker 4: back was against the wall, no matter what when people
Speaker 4: was doubting me, like even more than before, like more
Speaker 4: than ever. You know, I just kept kept my faith
Speaker 4: with him. And now we're here.
Speaker 5: Do you an'll have any impact on your negotiatings.
Speaker 4: I'm not. I didn't worry about Jaylens deal.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 4: It was like you know, we came to terms. We
Speaker 4: we came something both both of us mutually agreed on.
Speaker 4: Like I said, now we're here, John, this offense now
Speaker 4: with Lamar signed and get say Flowers after the draft, Obj, how.
Speaker 5: Excited argued about.
Speaker 12: This real thing?
Speaker 5: Doesn't be maybe one of the more explosive offenses you've had.
Speaker 3: Oh sure, you know Nelson. Nelson's in here working hard.
Speaker 3: The rest of the receivers. I'm sure. I think Mark's
Speaker 3: coming in next week or the week after.
Speaker 4: He'll be in here.
Speaker 3: A bunch of the linemen are in it. It's gonna
Speaker 3: be a lot of fun. You know, Lamar's already looking
Speaker 3: at the playbook even probably before you know, you probably
Speaker 3: gotta sneak peak at it before I'll bet if I
Speaker 3: know you at all. But it's got a chance to
Speaker 3: be it's got a chance to be exciting and fun.
Speaker 3: It's got a chance to be a winning offense. That's
Speaker 3: what we always want to be. But you know, the
Speaker 3: expectations are always high. Like Lamar said, you go back
Speaker 3: to twenty eighteen, that's all. That's all you think about.
Speaker 3: It's being as good as you can in every single way,
Speaker 3: and this year is no exception. But you know, I
Speaker 3: understand it's kind of ramped up a little bit, you know,
Speaker 3: But Mike McDonald sitting back there, it's ramped up for
Speaker 3: the defense too, right, Mike and Chris Horton for the
Speaker 3: special team. So it's a team thing. You know, we're
Speaker 3: gonna go out there and fight and work to be
Speaker 3: the best team we can be. And now we got
Speaker 3: a quarterback you know, locked up. We always knew we would,
Speaker 3: but now it's official and it's time to get to work.
Speaker 4: Mark.
Speaker 5: I want to get kind of your thoughts on that too.
Speaker 13: You've seen guys like Dings go to Buffalo and you know,
Speaker 13: top be good mind and what weapons have done for quarterback?
Speaker 13: Having three new guys, how eager are you to work
Speaker 13: with them, And how much of a jump do you
Speaker 13: think you and all can make working with those three
Speaker 13: guys together.
Speaker 4: Oh man, I'm very eager. I'm very eager. Left to
Speaker 4: be honest with you know, are I told? I think
Speaker 4: I told someone like man, I wanna throw for like
Speaker 4: six thousand yards with the weapons we have, like you know,
Speaker 4: and I'm not an individual or type of guard stat watcher,
Speaker 4: you know, I just wanna do that, you know, cause
Speaker 4: no one ever done, and I feel like we have
Speaker 4: the weapons to do it. You know, we got explosive
Speaker 4: guys man like co said no saying you know, the
Speaker 4: new addition say obj and we got bait man gonna
Speaker 4: be one hundred percent healthy thieves gonna be healthy, you know.
Speaker 4: So it's gonna I can't forget about Mark. I can't
Speaker 4: forget about my boy Mark, and you know likely so
Speaker 4: it's just can't wait to get rolling.
Speaker 11: Maren uh Eric's Ben asked a lot of questions about,
Speaker 11: you know, with you and this these negotiations.
Speaker 5: Like it's what did you learn about you know, Eric
Speaker 5: as a negotiator or the you know where the opposite
Speaker 5: art news two years off.
Speaker 4: I didn't have to learn anything about Eric man he's
Speaker 4: a business man. You know, I already knew that about him.
Speaker 4: I knew it. I was, you know, f gonna be
Speaker 4: you know, going through you know we where Eric. It
Speaker 4: was nothing to learn. You know, he's like I said,
Speaker 4: he's a business guy. You know, he meant business the
Speaker 4: whole time of process. You know, was a professional of
Speaker 4: the whole process. I was cool with it right during.
Speaker 9: During these negotiations, these players here, and you can put
Speaker 9: out a big message a legging collusion in the league
Speaker 9: relative to paying players like Lamar. If you're on the
Speaker 9: front lines of these negotiations, there will.
Speaker 5: Be more coming forward. What can you say anything about
Speaker 5: such a congrogation?
Speaker 2: Not much, you know, Uh, I speak to Lamar, Lamar
Speaker 2: speaks to me. There's no collusion when it's me and
Speaker 2: Lamar speaking together. I think the conversations were great. I
Speaker 2: always understood where he was coming from, and I always
Speaker 2: think he understood where I was coming from. Certainly we
Speaker 2: always didn't agree necessarily, or we would have got a
Speaker 2: deal done a lot sooner. But the respect has always
Speaker 2: been there, the appreciation has always been there. You know,
Speaker 2: we both love the Ravens, and we both love this community,
Speaker 2: and it took some time. In the end, it was
Speaker 2: really two people, you know, and I was dealing with
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson the agent, very impressive, patient, demanding on a
Speaker 2: straightforward you know. It wasn't always easy, you know, I'd
Speaker 2: rather deal with Lamar Jackson the player, I think, But
Speaker 2: in the end it was just Lamar and I talking, texting,
Speaker 2: emailing each other, trying to get a deal done that
Speaker 2: we really know other factors involved.
Speaker 5: We weren't rally of all these weathers in the passing game.
Speaker 12: But as a running quarterback, there an older lightning the
Speaker 12: industry in the league.
Speaker 5: A coach, do you anticipate a conscious effort to have
Speaker 5: you along the last this year?
Speaker 4: But that a how will you.
Speaker 5: Whether that money counts the senior league?
Speaker 3: That's really that's a great question, bo I know, it's
Speaker 3: something that we get asked all the time, Lamar, you
Speaker 3: get asked it all the time too, And it really
Speaker 3: is no conscious decisions along those lines. In the sense
Speaker 3: that Lamar is a unique player. He plays you know,
Speaker 3: why say it? Sometimes you called Lamar ball, right, Lamar?
Speaker 3: I mean I tell him all the times he play
Speaker 3: like you play you you style because you are so
Speaker 3: unique to your point there's nobody that plays like you.
Speaker 3: There's nobody that ever will play like you the way
Speaker 3: you can do. That's that's your God given gift. Like
Speaker 3: Lamar said, he's there's nobody like him and there never
Speaker 3: will be as a player. So let's go be the
Speaker 3: best Lamar Jackson that you that God intended you to be.
Speaker 3: You know, so when he feels like it's time to
Speaker 3: take off and run, he will when he feels like
Speaker 3: it's time, you know, based on what he sees. Nobody
Speaker 3: sees the field. I think Lamar's unique in the way
Speaker 3: he sees the field. He sees it in a snapshot.
Speaker 3: He doesn't necessarily see it in a in a in
Speaker 3: a connected Dodts progression. He takes big picture U view
Speaker 3: of the field and you ask him after a play
Speaker 3: what you see out there, and he'll say, hey, I
Speaker 3: saw He'll give you the names of the players where
Speaker 3: he saw him and what spots and where our players
Speaker 3: were and why he did what he did. And then
Speaker 3: you go back and you look at the tape and
Speaker 3: you're like, that's exactly what Lamar said he saw it.
Speaker 3: So you trust that as a coach and you let
Speaker 3: you allowed. You don't let you you you you encourage
Speaker 3: him to play the way he plays. So I think
Speaker 3: he's gonna throw when it's time to throw, and he's
Speaker 3: gonna run when it's time to run. And we're gonna
Speaker 3: we're gonna, we're gonna play play that kind of football
Speaker 3: and it's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: L maar.
Speaker 5: Doing this process, we've heard a lot of Lamar and
Speaker 5: he's an agent. Now you've gotten this deal done. Do
Speaker 5: you plan to continue to represent yourself even going forward.
Speaker 11: To your career?
Speaker 4: I do, well, I do. I wouldn't put my trust
Speaker 4: in anyone else but myself.
Speaker 12: Mark, You're you're adored from the Multiplex beauty and the
Speaker 12: little kids wearing your jersey everywhere.
Speaker 11: What does it mean to you to remain in his community?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 4: That means a lot to me. I love the fan
Speaker 4: base like like crazy, like I can't even explain it,
Speaker 4: like how much I love the fan base. You know,
Speaker 4: I was getting messages from them, like like people crying,
Speaker 4: like sad and my DMS. I'm like, man, like they
Speaker 4: got me sad. I'm like bro, like y'all don't know
Speaker 4: what's going on, Like just calm down, man, like we
Speaker 4: making progress. I want to tell them we're making progress,
Speaker 4: but I don't want to tell them because don't want
Speaker 4: to spoil what's going on, you know. So it's like, man,
Speaker 4: just be patient. If anything, be patient with me because
Speaker 4: like I'm not trying to go nowhere, you know, No
Speaker 4: matter what you guys see, like the finan say so
Speaker 4: is what's gonna be printed out when I'm signing and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, don't worry about what everyone else is.
Speaker 11: Saying, you know.
Speaker 4: And I mean I love it. I love the community
Speaker 4: so much.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 4: It's like I tell everybody it's my third home because
Speaker 4: Florida Louisville, they ain't here, like, but I'm here for
Speaker 4: five years, so like this's my home home right now.
Speaker 5: And you were your own agent.
Speaker 13: Were there are other agents that actually reach out to
Speaker 13: you for trying to represent you?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, every every week it was somebody new texting me.
Speaker 4: I don't know how he was getting my number. I
Speaker 4: guess they were sending it to each other, like, man,
Speaker 4: you know, I got this client right here. I'm like, man,
Speaker 4: I do not care about your client. But yeah, every
Speaker 4: week it was a new agent.
Speaker 5: Did you have any contact with Steve his time and error?
Speaker 10: He said it was you and Lamar, what was Steve's
Speaker 10: his what during this time of then you asked.
Speaker 4: Me no questions because he was talking to me. Then
Speaker 4: he went to and went to looking at I was
Speaker 4: confused a little, but okay, no I didn't I was
Speaker 4: talking strictly to Eric.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, you know, I think I'm blessed mark that
Speaker 2: you know Steve. I think John would say the same thing,
Speaker 2: Like Steve gives us a chance to do our jobs.
Speaker 2: He'll provide advice and guidance. He's great at that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: He's got a great perspective on negotiation and just basically
Speaker 2: on life in general, the nature of people, on various things.
Speaker 2: And he would give me feedback and he would give
Speaker 2: me ideas and suggest and different.
Speaker 4: Things if I asked.
Speaker 2: But he's really kind of hands off, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2: You know. That's what makes this place, I think so
Speaker 2: special to work. And he supported me, as did John,
Speaker 2: and as did Ozzie and Dick and Sashi and Nick
Speaker 2: and Pat and George and Joe and all those guys
Speaker 2: supported me. But in the end it was really me
Speaker 2: and Lamar and we got it done.
Speaker 11: How would you kind of evaluate these kinds four or
Speaker 11: five years as duty around Lamar. How does I guess
Speaker 11: how Lamar's has to jure, he compete, He waits for
Speaker 11: what he's done, what people.
Speaker 4: Were to build it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, i'd probably give us, give us a B.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've done a lot of good things, but
Speaker 2: we haven't achieved what we said we would, but Lamar
Speaker 2: said he would.
Speaker 4: We're not there yet.
Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, Lamar stood up there and he said,
Speaker 2: what we were going to do it. We're not there yet,
Speaker 2: but we're going to get there and right away. The
Speaker 2: team's not set yet. We still have a few months
Speaker 2: to build the team out. But I think you can
Speaker 2: feel the energy, you can see the rocks stre It's
Speaker 2: a strong roster. We got a lot of really really
Speaker 2: good players in place, excellently coaching staff, and we've got
Speaker 2: the mindset and the culture that John built. So you know,
Speaker 2: I think we're we're a B, but we're on our way.
Speaker 4: To be in an A.
Speaker 5: Well, Laura, I ask something that came up in the
Speaker 5: lust question. I want to make sure are you fully
Speaker 5: medically kid?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I passed.
Speaker 8: Everything's I'm great, yea, Lamar, do you think you'll get
Speaker 8: some of these players together on your own in.
Speaker 5: Florida before yet.
Speaker 4: Oh man, hopefully you know what guys. You know, some
Speaker 4: guys like to work out with with their personal trainers
Speaker 4: and stuff like that. But hopefully I can get the
Speaker 4: guys together and we you know, we started building right
Speaker 4: our chemistry right then and there.
Speaker 8: As the process wow down and you know, how did
Speaker 8: you balance Lamar the agent and being a businessman that
Speaker 8: you wanted to be a Lamar the player the human
Speaker 8: that you know, just wanted to be rated getting healed up?
Speaker 4: Oh that was easy, you know, And it was time
Speaker 4: for me to be Lamar Jason the agent. I was
Speaker 4: Lamar Jason the agent. But you know I really didn't
Speaker 4: have to be the player because I wasn't on the field.
Speaker 4: The only thing I was doing with training, So it
Speaker 4: was pretty easy for me.
Speaker 5: You and General will sit best. I will find themorrow
Speaker 5: we're back and that's gonna work out.
Speaker 12: One will give to the confidence in two with the
Speaker 12: times when I believe you might not have been played as.
Speaker 5: Confidence, was it a way that wouldn't go?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean I just think you know, we were trying
Speaker 2: to build the best team we could. Lamar's in our minds,
Speaker 2: the best quarterback in the league. And you know, uh,
Speaker 2: I just believe, you know, when I think about challenges
Speaker 2: that I faced, you just can't quit. You gotta persevere.
Speaker 2: You got to try to find solutions, you know, And
Speaker 2: so I kept trying to find different ways of coming
Speaker 2: up with some solutions. And you know, talking to Lamar communication,
Speaker 2: I mean, the toughest thing and the worst thing you
Speaker 2: can do in any kind of situation is just basically
Speaker 2: shut off from everything and not engage.
Speaker 4: And just give up.
Speaker 2: And you you know, we just didn't.
Speaker 4: We didn't.
Speaker 2: We didn't want to do that. It wasn't the best
Speaker 2: thing for the club, it wasn't the best thing for
Speaker 2: the city, for the NFL. We believed it wasn't the
Speaker 2: best thing for Lamar. So we just kept trying to persevere.
Speaker 2: And you know, there was some dark days. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to lie to you and say every
Speaker 2: day was great. It's been a long stretch. But we
Speaker 2: know Lamar, we know the kind of person he is,
Speaker 2: and you know he's in the phenomenal football player. But
Speaker 2: you don't make a phenomenal football player the highest paid
Speaker 2: player in the league. You make a phenomenal football player
Speaker 2: who was also a phenomenal person, the highest paid player
Speaker 2: in the league, and so we had a lot of
Speaker 2: conviction that this was the right thing to do. It
Speaker 2: made a lot of sense. It just took a lot
Speaker 2: of patience.
Speaker 5: Well, the structure of the deal you a little more
Speaker 5: wiggled him to, you know.
Speaker 10: Make some of the movies that you've talked about, continue
Speaker 10: adding to the team over the next three months.
Speaker 2: Well, we will get a little bit of relief. We
Speaker 2: needed it, quite honestly, you know. Uh, you know, Lamar
Speaker 2: joked a few years ago that d C stands for
Speaker 2: every dollar counts, And that is how how I think
Speaker 2: about it, because every dollar does count this year, and
Speaker 2: we need every dollar we can because we've spent you know,
Speaker 2: we've spent on some players and we signed some guys back,
Speaker 2: We signed Odell, we signed Rock yesterday, we have our
Speaker 2: draft class, and so you know, we spend a lot
Speaker 2: of money and we do it every year because we
Speaker 2: want to win. This does give us a little bit
Speaker 2: of relief, but it's not like it's not like we're
Speaker 2: leading the league in cap room.
Speaker 5: Okay, I can't. But with the deal done, have you
Speaker 5: treated you alt that anything nice? Well, you treat your
Speaker 5: sult anything nice.
Speaker 4: No, I haven't. Like I said, I got my mom
Speaker 4: something that's you know, my manager. I feel like she
Speaker 4: deserved anything because I seen she was getting uh she
Speaker 4: was getting her name called out a lot, you know,
Speaker 4: getting her number called out a lot. So I, you know,
Speaker 4: I felt like she deserves something, if anything. Oh, I'm cool.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm cool for nowe.
Speaker 5: Lamar under the he said she said there was a
Speaker 5: report that you went to the Ravens and said, uh,
Speaker 5: you wanted O'Dell and DeAndre Hopkins?
Speaker 1: Is that is that?
Speaker 5: Is that true?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: It was a question like can we like basically like
Speaker 4: can we get Oldell and dr? Like it was a
Speaker 4: question and it wasn't like oh I want them or
Speaker 4: nothing else, like nah, that's not how you conduct business.
Speaker 5: So how do you how do you when they when.
Speaker 4: You'll get Odell? Wh When does that? What does that
Speaker 4: mean to you?
Speaker 5: When they already were good, you know, a yell and
Speaker 5: after you kind of being that suggestion.
Speaker 4: Uh, I was hyped, like we we got O'Dell. Man,
Speaker 4: there was a super Bowl Winter Receiver. I felt like
Speaker 4: before it's injury, he was gonna be the Super Bowl MVP.
Speaker 4: You know you don't take away from Cooper Cup cause
Speaker 4: he bought it up, you know, out of control. But
Speaker 4: I felt like O'Dell Beckham was on the version of
Speaker 4: When the MVP, you know, so I'm hyped about it.
Speaker 8: Last last one guy, John, Uh, we heard the reaction
Speaker 8: and where Eric was when the steel started to come together?
Speaker 5: Where did you hear when this heel was coming together?
Speaker 5: Multi reaction?
Speaker 4: Such an embarrassing question. Actually I was. I I was
Speaker 4: in and uh it was early.
Speaker 3: It's about five forty five or so in the morning,
Speaker 3: and uh, I all of a sudden, I'm in my
Speaker 3: closet getting dressed, and I hear Johnny you in there.
Speaker 4: You know, It's like like it was Eric's voice.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, it was just like Eric, it's kind
Speaker 3: of early.
Speaker 4: Man, and give me a second.
Speaker 3: So I came out and he told me the story
Speaker 3: that you guys heard from the night before, and that
Speaker 3: he thought that that something was gonna happen. And of course,
Speaker 3: you know, there's a lot of a lot of a
Speaker 3: lot of joy at that moment. So then I held
Speaker 3: my breath for a couple of days, obviously, and then
Speaker 3: here we.
Speaker 1: Are, all right, pleasure get here, You're listening to the
Speaker 1: Rape Press Pass podcast. That was quarterback Lamar Jackson, head
Speaker 1: coach John Harbaugh, and general manager Eric Decasta. Lamar was
Speaker 1: fresh off signing a new five year contract to keep
Speaker 1: him here in Baltimore. You can tell he was excited,
Speaker 1: and Ravens fans certainly are as well. We actually had
Speaker 1: a chance to sit down with Lamar for an episode
Speaker 1: of the Lounge Podcast, So if you can't get enough
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson content, will go ahead and listen to that interview.
Speaker 1: You can also watch it on our app, our website,
Speaker 1: and our YouTube channel. And if you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: subscribe to the Ravens Press Pass podcast and the Lounge
Speaker 1: Podcast feats. Make sure you also leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. Thanks for listening. We'll talk with you again
Speaker 1: soon