Lamar Jackson's trade request staying silent for a month had NFL fans confused by the hold-up
A lot of questions came as a result of Lamar Jackson’s trade request from the Baltimore Ravens.
The first focuses on the best trade candidates, like a particular team in Indianapolis. The second concerned the New York Jets and their fabled quest for any worthwhile quarterback. Then there’s John Harbaugh and the face-to-face questions he had to answer almost immediately after Jackson shared his bombshell news.
But there might be something we’re overlooking here.
Per Jackson’s “letter” (Twitter thread?), he initially requested a trade on March 2nd. It is now March 27th, roughly a month later, and this is the first we had heard of these demands. The Ravens used a non-exclusive franchise tag on Jackson on March 7th.
Usually, when even a moderately big-name player requests a trade, contract extension, or discloses disgruntlement, the information is seemingly out in the open right away. Here, the reveal took us the entire month of March, with Jackson eventually tweeting it himself. Hmm.
That’s a little bizarre, isn’t it?
It’s worth noting that Jackson represents himself in all negotiations. And, theoretically, news we hear over platforms like Twitter is likely players’ agents disclosing their demands to reporters to share. While it’s far from confirmed, Jackson could’ve sat on this news for a while, considering he was holding all the cards, deciding when to reveal it as he pleases.
Judging by how the Ravens (and Harbaugh) reacted to Jackson’s request finally being made public, it seems like they were blindsided by the news, too. Though, it might be more related to Jackson finally letting everyone know more than anything. There’s nothing that says the Ravens couldn’t have been involved, but we don’t know the entire process behind the scenes.
It’s a tricky situation and one we haven’t seen a lot in professional football before. NFL fans were confused about why Jackson’s trade request took a month to be revealed, and some had their own theories.