Last offseason, Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons had a chance to pursue Lamar Jackson in free agency before he ultimately re-signed with the Baltimore Ravens.
They didn’t do it, and many feel it was a bad decision given how well Jackson has played this season.
However, Blank still feels that the Falcons made the right move in deciding not to offer up big money to the star quarterback.
“I don’t think so,” Blank, Atlanta’s owner, said when asked if it was a mistake not to go after Jackson (via the Falcons’ official YouTube account). “I’m mean, it’s easy to say ‘yes’ given his year, and he’s obviously an incredible player. You know, we did not have the cap space. I think the coaching staff felt — coach and personnel, all of us felt collectively, with certainly coach and Terry that we felt we had an answer in [Desmond] Ridder, a younger player without that kind of contract that would’ve kept us from actually building the team we wanted to build.”
To be fair to Blank, Jackson absolutely would have taken up a major portion of Atlanta’s cap space, and it also seems fair to say that the Falcons do not have the same overall roster talent that the Ravens do.
Plus, Jackson was coming off of a couple of questionable years in 2021 and 2022 where he didn’t play particularly well and had some injury issues.
And remember: at the time, many were on board with the Falcons not willing to pay Jackson, who ended up inking a massive five-year, $260 contract to remain in Baltimore.
That being said, with Jackson likely about to win his second MVP award after leading the Ravens to the best record in the AFC, it’s hard not to wonder “what if” if you’re an Atlanta fan, especially when you consider how poorly the Ridder experiment has gone.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but the decision not to heavily pursue Lamar Jackson is something that may haunt Arthur Blank for a long, long time.
The Falcons went just 7-10 this season.
Want the latest NFL analysis, breaking news, and insider information? Click here. Interested in reading storylines and analysis about the NBA? Check out our partner NBA Analysis Network.
