Early in the 2019 AFC divisional-round playoff game against the Tennessee Titans, Lamar Jackson floated a pass toward the left sideline for wide receiver Seth Roberts. One defender had slipped, and Roberts had clear sailing down the left sideline for a 74-yard touchdown. Except he dropped the ball.
The Ravens, who had steamrolled to a franchise-best 14-2 record, ultimately suffered a stunning 28-12 loss that soured a season in which Jackson won the league’s MVP award.
That Titans game, sandwiched between playoff losses to the Los Angeles Chargers a year earlier, and the Buffalo Bills a year later, has left Jackson with a 1-3 record as a postseason starter that his critics point to as evidence of his shortcomings.
Yet the fact that one of Jackson’s top receiving options in a postseason game was Roberts, who never topped 500 yards in an NFL season, is ammunition for Jackson’s legion of supporters who say no NFL quarterback has been asked to do more with less — or faced more scrutiny along the way.
For most of Jackson’s career, he has led an offense reliant on second-tier receivers and designed by a coordinator who seemed to treat the passing attack as something of an afterthought. Jackson’s health has also been an issue, as he missed the final month of each of the past two seasons.
Now, though, as Jackson enters his sixth season, all of that has changed.
Jackson is healthy again, fully recovered from the knee injury that cost him the final five games of the 2022 season.
He has a new offensive coordinator in Todd Monken, who has replaced run-first Greg Roman.
And the Ravens have supplied Jackson with the most prolific arsenal of passing weapons in his career, headlined by three-time Pro Bowl receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
On top of all that, the Ravens this spring made Jackson the highest-paid player in the league, signing him to a five-year, $260 million contract and ending a saga that had consumed the organization for more than a year.
If Jackson wasn’t handed a full deck of cards before, as his supporters have argued, this offseason he has been rewarded in spades.
He has a new system. He has a new set of receivers. He has his health. And he has his money. The pressure is squarely on Jackson now to propel the Ravens further in the playoffs than they have gone yet in his career.
“There’s always pressure on the position,” Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner said. “Lamar has been such a great playmaker, but if there has been one question about Lamar, it’s ‘Hey, can he drop back, play more conventional quarterback and carry a team with his right arm?’ We know he can make special throws. We know he’s gifted in so many different ways. But that’s the piece that we haven’t seen yet.”
“With that unknown comes pressure,” Warner continued. “Whether he feels the pressure or not, there’s pressure from outside that kind of goes, ‘Show us. Show us you can be that guy, too.'”
For his part, Jackson has said he feels no added pressure.
“I feel the same I’ve been feeling,” Jackson said after one spring workout. “I don’t feel like I have pressure on my shoulders about anything. I’m playing football.”
Fighting Critics His Entire Career
It’s not as if Jackson hasn’t dealt with pressure or scrutiny before. Although Jackson won the Heisman Trophy at Louisville, many draft experts dismissed his potential as an NFL quarterback.
Some viewed Jackson as a glorified running back. Longtime NFL general manager Bill Polian famously said Jackson’s NFL future was at wide receiver. Polian later acknowledged that statement was misguided, telling USA Today, “I was wrong, because I used the old, traditional quarterback standard with him, which is why John Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome were more prescient than I was. … Bottom line, I was wrong.”
Indeed, it was Newsome, in his final season as Ravens GM, who swung a deal and selected Jackson — the fifth quarterback taken — with the final pick of the first round of the 2018 draft.
After Jackson shredded the Miami Dolphins in the 2019 season opener, throwing for 324 yards and five touchdowns in a 59-10 rout, Jackson quipped, “Not bad for a running back.”
Before that season began, head coach John Harbaugh said the Ravens’ Jackson-led offense would be “revolutionary.” It was a brash claim that drew snickers at first — until Jackson stormed to the league’s MVP award, winning unanimously.
Jackson ran for 1,206 yards, the most by an NFL quarterback in a single season. That included his spin-cycle, 47-yard touchdown at Cincinnati that will be on NFL highlight films as long as the league exists.
But he also led the league in touchdown passes with 36, throwing to a cast of wide receivers that hardly inspired fear — Roberts, Willie Snead and rookies Marquise Brown and Miles Boykin — as well as the tight end trio of Mark Andrews, Hayden Hurst and Nick Boyle.
Jackson threw just six interceptions on 401 passes, and his touchdown percentage of 9.0 — a touchdown pass on roughly every 11 throws — was the second-best mark in the NFL across the previous 43 years.
Jackson, though, has failed to replicate that 2019 MVP form, admittedly a high bar.
In 2020, Jackson threw 26 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and he became the first quarterback in NFL history with two 1,000-yard rushing seasons. The Ravens finished 11-5 and beat the Titans in a postseason rematch but then lost at Buffalo, 17-3, in a divisional-round game that ended with Jackson on the sideline with a concussion.
Throughout the past two seasons, Jackson collectively has thrown 33 touchdowns and 20 interceptions, and he missed the final month of both seasons with injuries. That included a first-round playoff loss at Cincinnati this past season. Jackson’s completion percentage dropped from a career-best 66.1 in his MVP season to 64.4 and then 62.3 last year. His passer rating in the past two seasons ranked 23rd and 17th, respectively.
All of that served as a backdrop for contract discussions that grew contentious. With no progress, both sides put talks on hold before last season began. Then in early March, the Ravens applied the nonexclusive franchise tag to Jackson, essentially allowing other teams to negotiate with him. No offers materialized. Jackson, frustrated by the contract impasse, announced via social media that he had asked to be traded, stating that the Ravens were not “interested in meeting my value.”
The two sides ultimately worked out his deal, and Jackson, Harbaugh and GM Eric DeCosta were all smiles when they met with the media after the contract was signed in early May.
“We do feel [Jackson is] the best quarterback in the NFL,” DeCosta said, “and I think this contract reflects that.”
The deal made Jackson the league’s highest-paid player in terms of average annual value — at least until Justin Herbert signed a five-year, $262.5 million deal in July. Jackson’s deal includes a cap hit of roughly $22 million this year, about 10 percent of the team’s cap. The cap figure in the next three years swells to $32 million, then $43 million, then $74 million according to Spotrac, which tracks player contracts.
The conventional wisdom is that the best bargain in the salary-cap NFL is a franchise quarterback on a rookie deal. The Ravens are past that now, and once the quarterback commands a big slice of the cap pie, less flexibility exists to build the roster around him.
But it can be done.
“Patrick Mahomes has gotten that contract and they’ve been to two Super Bowls since,” NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger said. Mahomes’ cap figure was $35.7 million last season, which ended with a Chiefs Super Bowl title.
“It doesn’t have to prohibit you,” Baldinger said. “You just have to develop players. It forces everybody to draft better and develop better. … You’re not going to be able to pay as many people as you once did.”
With the contract drama behind him, Jackson has said he never wanted to play anywhere else. He is relaxed once again with reporters, and teammates say the new contract hasn’t changed Jackson one iota.
“Same ol’ guy,” quarterback Tyler Huntley said. “He’s exactly as he was before.”
Jackson’s contract, though, also carries an unspoken mandate: We are paying you to go out and win the Super Bowl.
“That’s My Quarterback!”
Jackson’s impact has been irrefutable.
Upon arrival in 2018, Jackson infused the franchise with energy that had been lacking through five middling seasons after the Ravens’ 2012 run to the Super Bowl title. His jersey flew off shelves, and he became enormously popular in Baltimore, especially in the Black community. Virtually any appearance he makes — whether that’s searching for banana pudding at West Baltimore soul-food restaurant Miss Carter’s Kitchen or treating kids at an ice cream truck in South Florida, which was shared recently on social media — is greeted by fans declaring, “That’s my quarterback!”
On the field, the Ravens are 45-16 in regular-season games Jackson has started, and 4-8 in games he has missed. Yet he has just one postseason win, and that number will hound Jackson like an All-Pro edge rusher until it changes.
In his three playoff losses, Jackson has thrown three touchdown passes and committed six turnovers, including a 101-yard interception return touchdown by Buffalo’s Taron Johnson.
“It’s hard to be one of the greats if you don’t win in the playoffs,” Warner said, “and if you don’t beat the other greats. For a guy like Lamar, and really everyone in the AFC, you’ve got Patrick Mahomes. … In your generation, you’re going to get compared to Patrick Mahomes. And you’re going to get compared to his postseason success. That’s the nature of the beast. And I think every quarterback wants it that way.
“Postseason success separates guys at that position,” Warner continued, “and so until Lamar has success there, there is always going to be pressure. … I still believe games are won in the playoffs by playing the game inside the pocket. If they accentuate the passing game and he becomes a really good passer, what does that mean for his playoff success?”
New-Look Offense
This offseason, the Ravens were proactive in building an offense to help Jackson realize such success.
They hired Monken, who won the past two national championships as the offensive coordinator at the University of Georgia and had NFL coordinator stints with Tampa Bay (2016-2018) and Cleveland (2019).
And they have loaded up at the wide receiver position, making good on an offseason pledge to rebuild the room after Ravens receivers ranked last in the league in 2022 with 1,517 yards.
The biggest splash came when they signed Beckham to a $15 million deal. They also signed former first-round pick Nelson Agholor and drafted Boston College receiver Zay Flowers with their first pick.
Rashod Bateman, the first-round pick of two years ago, is expected back from a foot injury that sidelined him for the final nine games last season. The Ravens also signed Laquon Treadwell, giving them five former first-round draft picks in camp. They join All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews and emerging second-year tight end Isaiah Likely, among others.
“When you get a Lamar Jackson,” Baldinger said, “you should never stop building around him.”
Jackson joked at his new-contract news conference that he hopes to throw for 6,000 yards this year — which would be an NFL record by more than 500 yards. That seems unlikely, but the expectation is that Jackson will easily eclipse his previous career-best mark of 3,127 yards.
“Let’s get these guys the ball and let them do them,” Jackson said. “We have the guys that will make stuff happen.”
Monken has said he wants to spread the field both vertically and horizontally, creating mismatches and open space for receivers. Last season the Ravens had 33 pass plays of 20 yards or more; only the New York Giants had fewer.
“They need more explosive plays,” Baldinger said. “They need more yards after the catch. And some of these offensive principles can provide that.”
Harbaugh described Monken as “adaptable,” using a “player-driven approach.” Translation: He won’t completely veer from Jackson’s singular running ability.
“You encourage [Jackson] to play the way he plays,” Harbaugh said. “So I think he’s going to throw when it’s time to throw, and he’s going to run when it’s time to run. We’re going to play that kind of football, and it’s going to be great.”
The question lingers, though: With the new players, the new system and the new contract, will Jackson, in the big picture, achieve more than in previous years?
“There are always so many questions,” Warner said. “I think one question people have had with Lamar is, can he be Patrick Mahomes, where it’s drop back 40 times a game and carry a team that way, as opposed to the way he has up to this point?” (Since 2019, Jackson has thrown 40 or more passes four times; Mahomes has done so 28 times.)
“That’s why I’m excited about this year,” Warner added. “It sounds like he’s going to have a chance to answer those questions and give us a chance to see how great Lamar Jackson really is.”
Photo Credits: Kenya Allen/PressBox