Rival exec: Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are headed for a dramatic standoff

Prepare yourself for a dramatic standoff between Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens.

Of course, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens are still so far apart on getting those precious dollars to make sense.

After having played out his fifth-year option season, Jackson will technically hit NFL free agency. While one AFC executive believes Baltimore will use the exclusive franchise tag on the 2019 NFL MVP, do not anticipate this to be an easy negotiating process between both parties. For all intents and purposes, anything short of a dramatic standoff would come as quite a shock in this process.

Here is what the AFC executive told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler about the Jackson contract situation.

"“And it could become a standoff, because I wouldn’t expect him to sign the tag for a while, and they will be so far apart in the guaranteed money.”"

Baltimore will wisely use the exclusive franchise tag on Jackson, but this feels so far from over.

Baltimore Ravens, Lamar Jackson apparently heading towards contract standstill

The exclusive franchise tag gives the player the higher of the two between the average annual value of the five highest paid contracts at his position, or 120 percent more than his previous year’s salary. It also prevents a player from negotiating with other teams. A non-exclusive tag allows a player to negotiate and his former team gets two first-round picks, if they do not match.

The reason why Baltimore will go the exclusive route is the Ravens would be able to garner way more than those two first-round picks as compensation. It would narrow the negotiating pool considerably, essentially smoothing things out to find the right place for Jackson to be traded over to. However, nothing is and ever will be easy when it comes to Jackson still representing himself.

He has opted to let the CBA do the negotiating for him, but the Ravens can keep on tagging him until it is too punitive to consider that a long-term viability. Jackson could want out, but he was drafted by one of the best run organizations in the league over the last two decades. Regardless, we are all in for an incredibly painstaking process when it comes to Jackson putting pen to paper.

It will be utterly fascinating how Jackson’s contract saga evolves with the Ravens this offseason.