Surging Salary Cap Will Help Ravens Build Around Lamar Jackson’s Huge Contract

As the Ravens can attest, having a franchise quarterback on his rookie contract is the most valuable asset an NFL team can have in building its roster. Lamar Jackson’s cap hit was never more than (just more than) $3 million in his first four seasons.

Those days ended when Jackson signed a five-year, $260 million contract extension last offseason that briefly made him the highest-paid player in the league and increased his cap hit in 2023 to $22.2 million. That number will continue to significantly increase in 2024 and each subsequent year.

However, The Baltimore Banner’s Jonas Shaffer said the NFL’s surging salary cap could help the Ravens build a winning roster around Jackson’s huge contract.

“General Manager Eric DeCosta’s big investment in Jackson has already paid off in the short term — Jackson’s second NFL Most Valuable Player award is proof positive of that — and now might age gracefully in the long term as well,” Shaffer wrote. “With the league’s announcement Friday that the 2024 salary cap would rise to $255.4 million per team, a record jump of $30.6 million, the Ravens will have their most important contract locked in for a period of potentially skyrocketing spending.”

Shaffer correctly pointed out that the paradox of roster construction is that it’s hard to win the Super Bowl without a top-10 quarterback, but top-10-quarterback contracts make it hard to win the Super Bowl.

“Only one QB this century has won an NFL title with a deal taking up more than 13% of his team’s salary cap,” Shaffer wrote. “He happens to be maybe the most talented passer in league history. The Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes did it in 2022 (17.2% of the cap) and again this past season (16.8%).

“Jackson’s 2024 cap hit (12.6% share) is far from onerous, but that was by design. His contract was back-loaded to accommodate more…