Ravens G.M. Eric DeCosta visited with #PFTPM on Wednesday. The primary topic was the team’s ability to finally get a long-term deal in place with quarterback Lamar Jackson.

The full interview is worth a listen. We’ll be posting some of the highlights here.

One question to DeCosta focused on whether he believes teams didn’t pursue Jackson because they thought the Ravens would match any offer sheet Jackson signed with another team.

“I think the franchise [tag] is a powerful tool,” DeCosta said. “I mean, anyone will say that, agents will say that, teams will say that, the union would say that. And so that’s exactly right. I think, you know, the fact is we were having a tough time getting a deal with Lamar. Again, we respected his position and his feelings, but we were still having a tougher time. But in the end, we felt like our deal, that the deals that we had made, we felt they were credible deals, we felt they were strong deals, and we felt like we were in a position to, not that we could match every single deal, but we felt like we would be able to match most deals and that if a team were willing to do a deal that we couldn’t match would be very hard for that team to do that type of deal. Not impossible, but very difficult. We already had the $32 million as a placeholder on our salary cap. Other teams didn’t. That’s problematic for other teams. So, in the end, it’s a calculated gamble, I would say. You know, is a team going to go after Lamar Jackson? And if they do, maybe, just maybe, the deal is something we can match which makes life easier for us.”