The Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson had done a very effective job of keeping extremely quiet any and all details about the offer(s) made by Baltimore to their franchise quarterback. That ended on Sunday, with Chris Mortensen of ESPN disclosing plenty of details about the contract.
The report has the union's fingerprints all over it, in part because Mortensen specifically identified in one of his tweets "union sources." In other words, someone from the union was talking. Per a source with knowledge of Jackson's mindset regarding the negotiations, he will be "pissed" that something was said by someone with the NFL Players Association.
Other evidence that the reporting came from the union includes the omissions from the details of the deal. There was no mention of the cash flow in year one or year two. If the Ravens were leaking the information, that likely would have been included. Because it is likely very significant in magnitude. And because it balances out the insistence on a fully-guaranteed deal.
Also, the notion that the rejected is worth up to $290 million, as reported by Mortensen, was simply wrong - as evidenced by ESPN pushing a new story that ditches the $290 million number and replaces it with $250 million.
Lamar Jackson may be "pissed" about leaks from NFLPA to ESPN originally appeared on Pro Football Talk