Jackson acknowledges a ‘conversation’ about contract

OWINGS MILLS, MD. » Lamar Jackson said he expects to spend the rest of his career with the Baltimore Ravens. He also gave few hints about how the next few months might go.

Jackson indicated he’s had recent discussions with the team about his contract, but that’s about all he was willing to say about it when he spoke to reporters Thursday for the first time since joining the Ravens for

mandatory minicamp. Jackson is entering his fifth-year option season, so a possible extension has been a big topic during this Baltimore offseason.

“We’re having a conversation,” the star quarterback said.

Jackson gave some variation of that answer several times, including when he was asked — and then asked a second time — if he would definitely play in the first regular-season game if he didn’t have a new deal by then.

“We’re having a conversation about it,” Jackson

said. “I don’t know.”

Earlier, however, he’d been asked if he expects to play the rest of his career in Baltimore. “I expect to,” Jackson said.

So the saga of Jackson’s contract situation continues. It’s not necessarily a crisis, but it’s uncertain enough to be intriguing. Jackson went into last season with a lot to prove after the Ravens added more receiving help, and the 2019 league MVP posted some of the best passing numbers of his career early on.

In November, however, he threw seven interceptions in three games.

It turned out he didn’t have much time to bounce back. An ankle injury caused him to miss the last four games. Baltimore lost them all and finished 8-9.

Then Jackson was absent during voluntary OTAs this year. If he plays well in the fall, there won’t be much discussion of why he didn’t come to those practices, but at this point in the offseason, that qualifies as newsworthy. He said his decision to skip those sessions was not contract related.