When John Harbaugh makes a guarantee, it comes to pass apparently.
Just a few days after the Baltimore Ravens head coach guaranteed the team would exercise the fifth-year option of franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson, the club officially announced Friday it had picked up the option.
Jackson is now under contract through the 2022 season, in which he's set to make $23.016 million, per Over the Cap.
The 2019 AP NFL Most Valuable Player, Jackson is a never-before-seen talent at quarterback who's produced back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons -- a feat never before accomplished.
"I think he's a very unique guy," Harbaugh said earlier this week on the Rich Eisen Show, when he made his aforementioned guarantee. "He's a guy that's different in a lot of ways than any quarterback probably that's ever played. No two players are exactly the same. But Lamar is somebody that, he breaks the mold a little bit. He does it in a way that a lot of people didn't anticipate, Rich. They didn't see this coming. They didn't think that a quarterback could play in this style. You know, they talked about him playing other positions and all of that. He's very determined and we're very determined to prove those people wrong, but also to pave a new path and show what's possible with a different type of a skill set. How that is exactly going to look when it's all said and done, that's what we're gonna find out."
Over two full seasons as a starter, Jackson has also thrown 62 touchdown passes, but his passing game is still seen as an area of needed improvement and thusly, it's been a good couple of days for the 2018 NFL Draft's 32nd pick. On Thursday, the Ravens used the 27th overall pick to select wide receiver Rashod Bateman out of Minnesota, who should aid mightily in the Ravens' revamped passing game which now also includes Sammy Watkins.
If there were any rumblings about Jackson's future, they were quelled Friday as the Ravens exercised their franchise QB's option prior to Monday's deadline.
