Lamar Jackson has another leap in him

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

The Ravens QB can be better than he’s ever been before this season.

At first blush, the premise seems flawed.

Lamar Jackson is one of just two players in NFL history to be an unanimous selection for MVP, having accomplished that feat during the 2019 season. He has been selected for multiple Pro Bowls, been named a First-Team All-Pro selection, and is already the holder of multiple records for quarterback play.

Still, the questions linger.

Critics will point to his record in playoff games, as the Ravens are just 1-3 in his four playoff starts. Even in that win, a Wild Card victory over the Tennessee Titans in 2020, Jackson underwhelmed, completing 17-of-24 passes for just 179 yards and an interception, without throwing a touchdown pass. Detractors will mock the “multiple records” line, noting that many of the records Jackson holds involve rushing yards, and not what he does as a passer.

The main criticism Jackson still faces? That he is not a pocket passer, and that opposing defenses “don’t really fear” what Jackson can do with his arm from the pocket. That is what former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had to say about Jackson in the spring. “You don’t really fear Lamar’s arm, his accuracy, all the time. He’s got a huge arm, he can make things happen when he scrambles, but you don’t fear him sitting in the pocket just picking you apart,” argued Roethlisberger.

It is a line of thinking that has plagued Jackson back to his days at Louisville, and one that the quarterback himself has tried over the years to address. In his book “Inside the Pocket” Bobby Petrino, Jackson’s coach at Louisville, outlined how after his freshman year Jackson walked into Petrino’s office with a request.

“I want to be a real quarterback.”

It has been an ongoing theme regarding Jackson, and the next step in that evolution starts now.

Under Todd Monken.

Jackson’s 2019 season came under the tutelage of Greg Roman, who was promoted to Offensive Coordinator following the retirement of Marty Mornhinweg. Roman drew on his experience coaching Colin Kaepernick at San Francisco, as well as his time as Baltimore’s tight ends coach, in crafting an offense that catered to Jackson’s athleticism, while focusing the passing game through the tight ends.

The system worked … to a point. Over the years Baltimore continually featured one of the NFL’s most dynamic rushing attacks. But the passing game suffered, and in the modern NFL where the passing game is king, it eventually caught up with the Ravens. Take a look at this chart from RBSDM.com looking at offensive efficiency from 2019, Jackson’s MVP season:

That year, the Ravens were off the chart in both the passing game and the rushing attack.

But things changed, and the league caught up to Baltimore. Looking at the same chart from last season?

While the Ravens remained one of the NFL’s most efficient rushing offenses, they were now below average when it came to the passing game. While the knee injury Jackson suffered last season cut his year short, the offense was still lagging in the passing game. Here is that chart for Weeks 1-12 of the 2022 season, the 12 weeks Jackson was able to play full games:

Even with Jackson in the lineup, the Ravens were just above league average in Expected Points Added in the passing game, and behind offenses like Tennessee, Cleveland, and the Las Vegas Raiders during this stretch.

That is the task facing Monken: Modernizing the Baltimore passing game, while still relying on a creative running game that features Jackson’s dynamic play-making ability.

The first step in upgrading the passing game appears to be giving Jackson more control at the line of scrimmage. This has been a theme all offseason. “Coach [Monken] is basically just giving us the keys to the offense, really,” Jackson said. “I’m loving it,” said Jackson during minicamp in June.

In the past, Baltimore’s offense was a bit more static under Roman. They would line up and simply run the play that was called in the huddle. This year Jackson will have more freedom at the line, and the Ravens will use even more tempo to stress the defense while giving Jackson opportunities to create explosive plays.

“There are times where Coach ‘Monk’ says, ‘I’m the coordinator. I call the plays. You like [the play]? Keep it,’” said Baltimore quarterbacks coach Tee Martin. “When you change that play, you become the coordinator. And we want it to work.”

As for the tempo part of the puzzle, this is also an effort to help Jackson take control at the line of scrimmage. “The idea is to leave the quarterback enough time at the line of scrimmage to assess the defense, make changes and be in control,” Monken said at the start of August. “I’m a firm believer that [if] you want your quarterback to play his best, you’ve got to empower him… I do believe in getting to the line quicker; I think that gives us more time at the line of scrimmage to assess — for the quarterback.”

Then there is the empowerment issue. Monken has been listening to Jackson, and incorporating his feedback on play designs and route concepts into the offense. “If you empower your players, you’re more receptive to their ideas and they put more time and effort into it,” Monken said recently. “Not just things that they, but things they may see on film or what’s on their mind in terms of a better way of doing it. If they don’t have confidence it what we do, we’re really in trouble. I think that’s a step in the right direction.”

That empowerment is something the quarterback certainly appreciates.

“It’s great,” Jackson said during the broadcast of Baltimore’s second preseason game. “I’ve been sending him plays of stuff I’ve been seeing, and he’s been putting them in practice, and they’re working. So it’s like, I’m glad he’s listening to me, man.”

Of course, all of this sounds great in theory, but we still need to see it in practice. Jackson, along with the bulk of Baltimore’s offensive starters, did not play at all this preseason as fans were treated to a healthy dose of Tyler Huntley, Josh Johnson, and Anthony Brown. However, studying the Ravens’ passing game during their three preseason games uncovers yet one more element of the change we will see from Baltimore’s offense this year.

They are going to attack downfield.

This is something Jackson himself highlighted during OTAs in May, the need for the Ravens to improve in the passing game and be more explosive in attacking downfield. “Less running and more throwing,” said Jackson in May when asked about the offense under Monken. “Running can only take you so far. I feel like, with this new era of teams and offenses in the league, I feel like we need that. And Coach Todd Monken, what I’m seeing in his offense so far is looking tremendous.”

He then added his thoughts on what he loved about the new offense. “Just being able to throw the ball down the field,” said the quarterback.

You can see examples of this philosophy in Baltimore’s three preseason games. Plays such as this verticals concept against the Washington Commanders, where Anthony Brown hits tight end Charlie Kolar downfield for a big gain:

Even some of the incompletions illustrate where Baltimore is going to focus this season. Take this incompletion from the Ravens’ final preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

This is a vertical concept sometimes termed “989” in some offensive systems, with a go route to each side of the field and a post route in the middle of the field, which can flatten into a dig route against single-high coverage. Here, Brown tries to hit one of the go routes, and while the pass falls incomplete, it gives you a sense of what this passing game might look like in Jackson’s hands.

The Ravens have new thinking on offense, particularly in the passing game. They have new weapons for Jackson, including Odell Beckham Jr. and first-round pick Zay Flowers. They have everything in place for Jackson to live up to his new deal, and become the pocket passer that so many have questioned — still — that he could become.

With everything in place, there is reason to believe we truly will see the best of Jackson this season.