Breakfast at the Biltmore
THE Arizona Biltmore is an iconic resort that opened its heavy mahogany doors in the Sonoran desert nearly six months before the Great Crash of 1929. Its earth-toned art-deco style etched of intricate, low-slung geometric architecture quickly made for an instant classic; that rare locale where politicians, celebrities and tourists alike escaped to laze about in bright sunshine and bespoke service synonymous with the hotel’s heightened moniker. In the intervening decades, the Biltmore has only burnished its image as one of the country’s most sought-after destinations whether for work, play or somewhere in between. This week, the NFL’s Annual League Meeting is currently underway at the Biltmore where yesterday morning, the traditional NFL Coach’s Breakfast kicked off the festivities. It’s not what you think. There is no perimeter of steaming trays uncomfortably hoisting aloft overcooked scrambled eggs, unevenly browned sausage links or brutally singed breakfast potatoes. Rather, the Breakfast is one in name only. The only consumption taking place stems from the throngs of reporters voraciously ingesting unscripted, rapid-fire Q&A sessions with coaches from each of the League’s 32 teams. Simultaneously. It was quite the scene. 32 modestly-sized roundtops tightly dotted the windowless — and cacophonous — Macarthur Ballroom, each unglamorously draped with tired beige table linens. No matter. Each table hosted a gaggle of mic bouquets, laptops, iPads and digital recorders to complement nearby tripod-mounted cameras and overhead boom mics. Each device to capture any given coach’s candid insight into the looming pre-Season, free agency, the upcoming Draft, you name it. A veritable ask-me-anything. And so it was a curious scene rapidly unfolding into painful awkwardness in real-time at the Raven’s John Harbaugh junket when right off the bat, John was asked if he’d yet seen embattled star QB Lamar Jackson’s breaking tweet. A carefully worded diplomatic response spilled from his lips but his eyes revealed a recoiled, bristling, obfuscating, tempestuous undercurrent that no amount of wordsmithing could muscle into submission. Welcome to the Biltmore.
As John gazed longingly for relief into the camera lights, he spent the next 26 minutes professionally rattling off responses to 31 questions. With reporters hunched side-by-side, John kept the atmosphere composed, buoyant and the conversation forward-focused. But the cloud of squirmy discomfort hanging over the Ravens remained, stubbornly, long after the cameras and reporters had moved on. With the tap of his thumbs, Lamar Jackson, 2276 miles away, expertly timed his tweet bomb to inflict maximum pain. It had been a long time coming. Lamar and the Ravens have been entangled in contract negotiations since Winter 2022. Of course all of it over money. And precedent. Adding complexity to an already fraught situation is that Lamar is famously acting as his own agent, gaining counsel from family and the NFLPA. Hoping to crystallize the Team’s momentum at the onset of the 2022 Season, the Ravens offered Lamar a $200M 4-year deal. $133M guaranteed at signing, $175M guaranteed for injury and $200M should he remain healthy into 2026. Lamar rejected the offer and a year of will-he-won’t-he rumblings commenced. Popular thought had it that Lamar and the Ravens would reach some sort of agreement though Lamar repeatedly reminded the media that there would be no further negotiations in-season; that his commitment was soley to the field of play. In his heart, Lamar was holding out for a precedent-setting contract eclipsing the fully-guaranteed $230M contract troubled Deshaun Watson inked with the Browns in just March 2022. A yawning $30M+ and — importantly — philosophical gap would separate both parties; a gap that remains to this day.
Over the course of the 2022 Season, Lamar missed 5 games and a crucial playoff loss to Cincy owing to a knee injury. The season prior, an ankle injury forced his absence from the final 5 games of 2021. Without him, the Raven’s offense shriveled up and blew away in the dark of night. Add it all up and you see a troubling trend of healthy durability, especially considering Lamar’s explosive and at times acrobatic ground-and-pound heavy approach. That magic comes with a price. Physical toll and salary withheld. Lamar made his calculus and found his only insurance in a fully-guaranteed contract. The Ravens made their own counter-calculus and didn’t quite arrive at the same conclusion, pointing at the 2021 and 2022 Seasons as red-hot proofs of life.
So with negotiations at a standstill and philosophical-financial gaps too distant to bridge, Lamar just last month on March 5th, officially requested a trade looking to test agency waters. Two days later, the Ravens in response used the only tool in their arsenal — the non-exclusive franchise tag. With it, Lamar is allowed to shop around and sign an offer sheet with any other team in the League under terms more to his liking. The Ravens have the right to match any offer or they can let him walk taking two first-round draft picks for the trouble. If Lamar fails to secure an outside offer, Baltimore is on the hook for $32.42M for the 2023 season and once more Lamar will be suiting up in purple and black. Then for 2024, lather, rinse, repeat.
Which brings us back to the Biltmore yesterday morning and Lamar’s social media chef’s kiss to the assembled masses. In his tweet, Lamar reiterated his intent to leave Baltimore in search of an organization willing to pay him his worth. He thanked fans and the State of Maryland before concluding “You’ll see me again.” Lamar’s posting at 10:48AM perfectly coincided with the beginning of BAL coach John Harbaugh’s press availability at the Coach’s breakfast. Designed to maximize his leverage at the Team’s most inopportune time, the strategy looks to have played right into Lamar’s hands. For much of John’s junket, he spoke meanderingly in a blue-skies-and-lollipops tone of continuing to mount an offensive strategy around Lamar’s phenomenal capabilities. Adding further that he doesn’t see the relationship with Lamar as irreparably damaged. John weighed-in, too, that he saw this as a numbers problem and that numbers can be worked out. All happy talk papering over a still-festering wound. That the sides remain far apart is an understatement. That Lamar’s lucrative free agency options (Jets, Commanders) are dwindling fast is a fact. That BAL’s options without Lamar are as difficult as they are time-consuming are a given. At worst, Lamar might be playing under $34M “duress” for 2023 while he and the Ravens grind toward inevitable compromise. Time is running out and the Draft is only weeks away which makes Lamar’s virtual crashing of the Biltmore Breakfast all the more remarkable. Pinpoint accuracy, devastating damage and lasting effect. On-field and off, Lamar remains consistent if anything else. Who’s hungry? Time to eat!
