Doug Gottlieb: βLamar Jackson could have played, he didnβt, his team lost, THE END. Itβs disgraceful. No one has said heβs βfakingβ an injury, but this is ALL on Lamar. The narrative out there is that the Ravens donβt want to pay Lamar Jackson. Itβs not true, itβs never been true, and it will never be true. Theyβve done everything possible to put him in the best position to succeed. These types of quarterbacks level off either because of injury, attrition, or because people figure them out, and you have to be able to pass in the NFL. When Lamar has lost these playoff games theyβve had a top 10, many times a top 5 defense. It ainβt the defenseβs fault. Lamar Jackson has done this to himself. Not having an agent, not negotiating, and if youβre going to sit out you sit out in the preseason and early in the season, you donβt hurt your team in the postseason. The whole thing weβve said about Lamar Jackson is heβs awesome in the regular season, but man, it feels like heβs limited in the postseason. So you sit out in the postseason because youβre βhurtβ but not βinjuredβ? What are we doing here?? Lamar believes the only way to βshow him loveβ, and the only way to do something good with his talents is to pay him as much or more money than Deshaun Watson. But everybody in line, some more accomplished and some less accomplished, have signed for less guaranteed money. His deal would have been done if he had an agent, or he wouldnβt have sat out a playoff game. This thing has gotten so flammable that it probably gets to the point where youβre like βare we going to have to trade this dude?β The Ravens donβt want to trade him, they just want to sign him for the appropriate price. Most people Iβve talked to in the NFL have said the Deshaun Watson contract is ridiculous, and though Lamar has no off-field issues, no catastrophic knee injuries, and been an MVP, but five years guaranteed, especially to a running quarterback, is insane at top of the market money. The NFLPA is a joke. If you wanted fully guaranteed contracts then you should have held out in contract negotiations for your CBA to get it, but you didnβt. Because I thought Sam Darnold would be better than Lamar Jackson somehow Iβm βhatingβ on Lamar. Iβm not, heβs really good. But no βreally goodβ would cause me to give a guy five years into the league at 25 years old a contract which seems to be malpractice considering how he plays the position.β (Full Segment Above)
Listen to Doug Gottlieb explain why he thought it was βdisgracefulβ that Lamar Jackson missed the Baltimore Ravens Wild Card Round playoff game vs. the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, when it appeared as if Jacksonβs βinjuryβ wasn't serious enough to warrant missing a playoff game.
Check out the audio above as Gottlieb details why Lamar only has himself to blame for placing his career at such a precarious crossroads.
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