Lamar Jackson Favored to Join Jets, Falcons, Raiders over Ravens in Latest Odds

Lamar Jackson's future has become a huge storyline in the past week, and oddsmakers don't believe that future will be in Baltimore.

The New York Jets are currently the favorites to end up with the electrifying quarterback this offseason, while the Ravens aren't considered among the top-seven contenders:

Jackson's time in Baltimore has been cast into doubt after the former MVP sat out of the team's 24-17 Wild Card Round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals with a knee injury. He last played on Dec. 4.

It was Jackson, and not the team, who announced he would miss the game, raising some eyebrows around the NFL:

There was speculation that Jackson might be playing it extra safe to avoid injury ahead of his free agency, which head coach John Harbaugh and the team easily could have shot down in public comments. Only they didn't, leading to even more speculation.

"That is absolutely how things are done, except for if your last name is Harbaugh, right?" a team executive told The Athletic's Mike Sando regarding Harbaugh's relative silence on the matter last week. "That is what him and his brother do, and there is one more guy who handles business like that—he wears cutoff-arm sweatshirts with hoodies, and his name is Bill Belichick."

And when a few of Jackson's teammates offered their own thoughts on the matter, more and more buzz began to circulate that perhaps all was not well between the quarterback and organization, though other teammates offered support or walked back their comments.

"The outside world, and all the different narratives that people paint in their minds, sometimes it's humorous," Ravens' defensive end Calais Campbell told reporters. "Lamar Jackson is a guy who loves the game of football, and I truly believe he worked as hard as he could to give himself a chance to play."

"He's not healthy," safety Chuck Clark added. "You've seen him barely walking here. You can't force somebody to play."

But the rumors are going to persist, and clearly the oddsmakers think a change of scenery is on the horizon. Granted, the Ravens have the option to use the franchise tag, with Jackson's only recourse there to simply sit out the season.

But in the event the two sides agree to part ways, all of the teams listed outside of the Miami Dolphins—Tua Tagovailoa looked the part of a franchise quarterback this season when healthy, though his concussion concerns may have called into question his future—are in need of a quarterback upgrade.

The question for Jackson will be whether he wants to join a rebuilding squad or tries to latch onto a more competitive roster that is perhaps a quarterback away from being a contender. The Jets have a bevy of young talent and while they remain in a rebuilding mode, going from Zach Wilson to Jackson would be an enormous upgrade and would transform the team's offense.

If Jackson leaves Baltimore, the Jets will be in the running. But other suitors will make strong cases as well.

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