Richard Sherman had some thoughts about the Lamar Jackson situation. In an unprecedented contract situation, the 26-year-old former MVP is available and yet no one is talking to him. The reason seems to be centered around Jackson’s desire for a massive fully guaranteed contract. Sherman did not hold back in his recent comments about the situation.
Richard Sherman On The Lamar Jackson Contract Situation
While many are blaming the Cleveland Browns for giving Deshaun Watson a $230 million guaranteed contract, Sherman is shifting his blame elsewhere.
“When Kirk Cousins got his guaranteed deal, I thought quarterbacks from then on were gonna be like ‘if it ain’t guaranteed, I ain’t taking it. Then Patrick Mahomes took that BS deal, 10 years and wanted it to be like half a billion. When he didn’t set it, then Josh Allen didn’t set it.”
Sherman blames Patrick Mahomes for not taking a fully guaranteed contract and instead opting to sign a 10-year $450 million deal in July 2020. His criticism is that Mahomes could have demanded a fully guaranteed contract like Kirk Cousins and that would have set the precedent for all quarterbacks moving forward.
It All Comes Back To The Watson Contract
There’s some context that we have to look at in this situation. Cousins has taken shorter deals in order to make them fully guaranteed. Jackson is looking for a longer deal with those guarantees like the one Watson signed. I understand that Mahomes could have held out to get a fully guaranteed contract but can anyone really blame him for signing a deal worth up to nearly half a billion dollars? There is one person to blame. The Cleveland Browns decided to give Watson a fully guaranteed long-term contract. Had they not, Lamar Jackson most likely would have already been signed.
Richard Sherman is never one to hold back on his opinions. In this case, it is an interesting route that he takes to blame Mahomes for the Lamar Jackson situation. It will be interesting to see how this ultimately gets resolved because as of now, the end does not look to be in sight.