The $74.5 Million Question: Can Baltimore and Its MVP QB Strike a Deal Before Free Agency?

Lamar Jackson’s looming 2026 cap charge has become the defining storyline of the Ravens’ offseason, and it is no longer a quiet, back-channel negotiation. With his number set to spike from roughly $43.5 million to about $74.5 million and consume close to a quarter of Baltimore’s cap, every other decision the front office makes in the coming months will tie back to whether a reworked deal gets done before free agency opens in March. Owner Steve Bisciotti has made it clear he wants Jackson in Baltimore for the long haul. However, by publicly pushing for an extension on this specific timeline, he has effectively placed the next move squarely in his franchise quarterback’s hands.

Jackson’s current contract, signed as a five-year pact worth over $260 million, was once a market-setting win but is now a cap conundrum because of how money was pushed into the back end of the deal. According to multiple reports, his cap hits in 2026 and 2027 are projected to total around $149 million, a figure that would account for roughly 25 percent of the Ravens’ room across those two seasons. That kind of financial weight on a single player is the textbook example of how even a great quarterback contract can become restrictive if left untouched too long. Bisciotti and Eric DeCosta have both acknowledged that, without a rework, Baltimore will be “extremely limited” in what it can do when the market opens, forced to shop in the second and third waves of free agency rather than at the top shelf where true difference-makers live.

At last week’s joint press conference following John Harbaugh’s firing, Bisciotti stripped away any ambiguity about where the organization stands on Lamar. He expressed eagerness to get an extension or restructure done before the start of the new league year, openly saying he wants Jackson to “stay here long term” and referring to him plainly as “our quarterback.” That framing, combined with the no-trade clause already embedded in Jackson’s deal and the absence of any future franchise-tag leverage once the contract expires, effectively extinguishes serious trade speculation for now. Bisciotti has put the ball in Lamar’s court, signaling organizational loyalty and trust while also making it clear that if a deal does not get done quickly, it will not be because the franchise dragged its feet.

The waiting game, however, is where things get complicated for the Ravens’ front office as it attempts to build a contender in a pivotal transition year. OverTheCap projections and local reporting suggest Baltimore currently sits in the low-to-mid $20 million range in effective 2026 cap space, a number that sounds workable until Jackson’s $74.5 million balloon hit is factored in alongside a long list of expiring and extension-eligible contracts. DeCosta has already admitted there is a “little nest, not as much as we’d like,” and that a new Lamar deal is the single biggest lever available to create real flexibility before March 11th. Without that lever pulled, the Ravens will be forced into tough choices: letting key veterans walk, back-loading new deals for stopgap signings, or turning to less-than-optimal restructures across the roster that could create future dead-money headaches.

Nowhere is that tension more obvious than with center Tyler Linderbaum, the quiet fulcrum of Baltimore’s offense and one of the top pending free agents on the roster. The Ravens already declined his fifth-year option, in part because the current rules would have forced them to pay him at a tackle-level number that would instantly reset the center market by four to five million per year. That decision gave Linderbaum leverage heading into negotiations, and it means any long-term extension is going to be expensive enough that Baltimore has to plan around it as a franchise-pillar commitment rather than a mere line item. If Jackson’s cap hit remains untouched heading into free agency, the front office may be cornered into either delaying serious talks with Linderbaum, risking a drawn-out negotiation that allows other teams to circle, or cutting at other positions just to free up the space to keep its All-Pro-caliber center in the building.

The ripple effects extend well beyond one lineman or one signing window; they shape everything about how the Ravens can approach team-building in an offseason defined by change. A timely extension for Jackson, potentially along the lines of a new five-year framework with a heavy upfront bonus and a significantly reduced 2026 cap charge, would instantly open tens of millions in space and allow DeCosta to pivot from survival mode to a more aggressive posture in both retaining his own and targeting a small number of premium outside additions. That structure could drop Lamar’s 2026 number into the high-30s or low-40s instead of the mid-70s, effectively creating another “star player” slot on the cap sheet without sacrificing cash over the life of the contract. In the backdrop of Harbaugh’s departure and a looming coaching search that will almost certainly be pitched around Jackson as the centerpiece, the message is simple: if quarterback and owner can align on timing and structure in the next several weeks, the Ravens can afford to keep their core intact and reload; if the stalemate lingers into March, Baltimore risks entering free agency and the draft with its hands tied, watching opportunities pass while the most important number on its books just sits there, daring them to blink.