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4. Efficiency From Lamar Jackson
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Going into the game against the Rams, Jackson needed to work on staying in the pocket. He needed work remaining a passer and seeing the entire field. Jackson improved dramatically in this aspect, last Thursday. Jackson still needs to work on that but since he showed progress in that area, the Ravens need to focus on efficiency this week. This is the part of his game that has been the most troubling.
Jackson is a sobering 11-28 passing. A 39.3 percent completion percentage isn’t going to cut it in the NFL. While it was nice to see Jackson taking some shots last week, he needs to start hitting his target. Jackson is only averaging 5.4 yards passing per attempt and he has been sacked 5 times. It is efficiency that is the biggest sore on his preseason report card. Jackson has to tackle one problem area at a time. He worked on being a more pass first quarterback last week; it showed despite his legs making his most impressive highlights.
This week Jackson needs to focus on getting more out of each pass. He can’t be a dink and dunk quarterback, and he can’t just chuck every ball 50 yards. The 32nd overall pick has to be able to attack the entire field. A reasonable goal for Jackson is to have a completion percentage of over 50 percent while averaging over eight yards per pass attempt. Jackson is a quarterback in development mode so he just needs to take small steps at a time. Efficiency is what Jackson needs to learn, and he needs to start working on it now.