Lamar Jackson: What a successful 2019 could look like

Lamar Jackson’s development as a quarterback is the story that will shape the Baltimore Ravens’ 2019 season. What would constitute a successful 2019 for Jackson?

Lamar Jackson is going into his first full season as the starting quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens. Jackson showed that his athleticism is just as incredible at the NFL level as it was when he was the star at Louisville. Jackson ran for 695 yards and five touchdowns as he relied on his ability to create offense with his speed. Jackson totaled 1,201 yards and six touchdowns as a passer.

Obviously, Jackson needs to focus on improving his performance as a passer. Jackson averaged about 171 yards per game as a passer in his seven starts of the 2018 season. If he can get that average output to 200 yards per game, it would be hard to scoff at that. Jackson is always going to make an impact on the ground. He needs to become a better passer, take less hits, the whole gamut but he doesn’t need to take away what makes him special.

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The Ravens don’t need him to be a 300 yard passer every game. There will be times where the passing game will be what is needed to win. The Chargers showed the Ravens that a one dimensional offense won’t fly in the NFL for long. The running game should be a foundation of the offense, but there needs to be a vertical threat to the offense. The passing game could make the defense the Ravens face worry about the entire field, instead of just stacking the tackle box.

So 3,000 yards passing would be a mark that Jackson should shoot for. That sounds a bit modest for a starting quarterback but if he runs for 1,000 yards the Ravens would get 4,000 yards of total production from a quarterback. It doesn’t really matter how that all-purpose production comes, that would be a monster season that would make Baltimore hard to beat. To stay on the 1,000 rushing yards mark, he would have to average 62.5 yards per game.

So the 4,000 all purpose yard mark is the goal here. 4,000 yards of production will make the Ravens offense click. Jackson’s biggest problem however is still protecting the football. Jackson can work on that. It seems likely that fumbles will always be a bit of a problem, but he can minimize that. Fumbles reaching for extra yardage or handling snaps and hand-offs are all fumbles that can be eliminated from his game.

There’s no excuse to have a fumble in the backfield without even being hit. Jackson has an entire offseason to work on limiting the self-inflicted turnovers. With hard work and proper coaching there is no reason that Jackson can’t be the most dynamic play-maker in the NFL. Jackson has more talent than he gets credit for. The 6-1 end to the regular season was incredible and separating him from that success is a fool’s errand.

Jackson’s development depends on three things: ball security, growing confidence as a passer, limiting the hits that he takes without taking away the threat of his running game. With the right focus on all three areas, Jackson can have an incredible season and kickoff a wonderful era of Ravens football.