As the Baltimore Ravens creep toward their Week 1 matchup with the New York Jets on September 11, they're also inching toward a pivotal point with quarterback Lamar Jackson.

The 32nd pick in the 2018 draft is in the final year of his rookie contract. He's been eligible for an extension since last offseason but has yet to come to an agreement with the Ravens.

Jackson, who is representing himself in negotiations, has set a deadline for Week 1. Presumably, he'll end contract talks until next offseason if a deal isn't done by then.

"We're coming up to it," Jackson said in a press conference (h/t Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk). "It's coming up. The season's coming up. We're going to be good for the season."

While Jackson worked away from the team for part of the offseason, he reported early to training camp and has not indicated that he'll refuse to play without a new deal before Week 1. Therefore, his deadline appears to be more about shifting focus to the playing field.

In other words, Baltimore has until September 11 to extend Jackson. That puts some pressure on the Ravens but in no way exposes them to losing Jackson in 2023. They will still have until the start of free agency to work out a new deal and can always use the franchise tag.

You can bet that the Ravens are keeping this reality in mind during negotiations since there's no reason to jump on a contract they view as unfavorable. However, there are pros and cons to signing Jackson long-term before his stated deadline arrives.

And you can also bet that Baltimore isn't the only franchise paying attention here.

Why Extending Jackson Now Would Make Sense

The benefit of extending Jackson now rather than in 2023 is largely financial. Quarterback contracts are consistently rising due to the next-man-up-gets-more nature of negotiations.

Upon being traded to the Cleveland Browns early in the offseason, Deshaun Watson received a deal worth $46 million annually. Kyler Murray was the next quarterback to be paid this offseason and signed a deal worth $46.1 million annually.

There are outliers to this formula, of course. Aaron Rodgers, for example, signed a deal worth $50.3 million annually—making him the league's highest-paid quarterback based on average annual value—before Watson.

Of course, Rodgers has won back-to-back MVP awards. Watson got an unprecedented fully guaranteed contract worth $230 million, but he also had multiple trade suitors, including the Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons.