I've heard Ballard and others say that no price is too high for the right qb. Two first round picks is not a "king's ransom" I would much rather give up 2 first picks and pay Lamar $250 million for 5 years than to take one of these guys in the draft.
Since the 2010 Super Bowl only 4 teams have won Super Bowls with QB's on rookie deals (Baltimore, Flacco Seattle, Wilson Philly, Wentz Kansas City, Mahomes). So this idea that a team needs a cost effective QB contract to win just doesn't line up with reality.
Do you know why zero teams have reached out to Lamar? It has nothing to do with his "free agent value" and everything to do with the fact that the other 31 NFL owners DO NOT WANT TO PAY GUARANTEED CONTRACTS! This has the potential to completely change the way business is done in the NFL, and the owners are fighting it until the bitter end. If the players are smart right now the NFLPA should be telling Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and other star players who are eligible for extensions this year to tell their teams that they will not consider anything that isn't guaranteed. Lamar is being shunned right now because no one wants to be the next owner to cave. In my opinion, if the players band together the owners will have to give in. If I'm Burrow or Herbert I wouldn't step into the team's facilities again until it was to sign my fully guaranteed contract. To think this is about Lamar's value is really silly. And to be honest, I'm sick of hearing the excuse that the NFL just can't give out guaranteed deals because of the injuries that happen. Paul George is getting over $40 million a year for the Clippers and how many games has he missed in his career? Mike Trout makes over makes over $35 million a year but in the last 5 years hasn't even played 60% of his teams games and has only been to the playoff once in his career. This has zero to do with Lamar Jackson's free agent value and everything to do with the greed of the NFL owners. I don't blame the owners for trying to make as much money as they possibly can, that's the point of having a business. At some point though, you do have to pass some of the profits down to the guys who put people in the seats.