The NFL season is the most joyous time of the year, but the offseason ain’t bad either. We’re in the middle of the NCAA Tournament, we’ve got the Masters on deck and it’s MOCK DRAFT SZN, baby. And Mock SZN means it’s time for the godfather of the Veteran QB Trade Mock Draft (aka me) to test out some craziness.
Special shoutout to Lamar Jackson, then, for coming out on Monday morning and announcing he demanded a trade way back on March 2, before Baltimore hit him with the non-exclusive franchise tag. Lamar’s tag allows other NFL teams to step in and put together an offer sheet. If Lamar accepts the contract, the Ravens can either match or get two first-round picks back from the team securing his services.
There’s also a pathway for the Ravens to pull of a sign-and-trade deal with another team. A team that makes a ton of sense for said sign-and-trade is the Indianapolis Colts. Indy holds the fourth pick in the draft and could be boxed out for the immediate impact quarterbacks. Lamar would quickly solve that problem and if there’s a team possibly interested in Jackson — and for an interesting number of reasons there haven’t been a ton — Indy fits the bill pretty perfectly.
In this instance, the Colts could work with Lamar to find out what kind of deal he wants, have him sign his tag with the Ravens and then trade for Lamar and give him the contract he’s interested in. With Lamar having no agent, it’s a little trickier to pull off and requires plenty of trust between three parties.
Baltimore would obviously prefer two first-round picks, but a sign-and-trade might make sense here with Indy giving up the fourth overall pick, quite the valuable commodity. Instead of the offer sheet plus picks, the sign-and-trade would allow Indy to give back something like a conditional second-round pick next year, which turns into a first-round pick if Lamar plays X number of games or the Colts make the playoffs, etc.
Colts owner Jim Irsay even said Monday he doesn’t see money as a problem, but lamented the draft-pick compensation for potentially acquiring Lamar. So there’s a pathway forward for this potentially happening. Let’s see what would happen if the Ravens and Colts actually struck a deal for Lamar (for ease of use, we’ll just make it the standard offer sheet).
There are only 31 picks in this mock draft because the Dolphins were stripped of their first-round pick due to tampering.
For more draft content, check out our latest prospect rankings and mock drafts, as well as our new weekly podcast, “With the First Pick,” featuring former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman. (Check out the latest episode below.)
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Author: Will Brinson
March 30, 2023 | 11:12 am
