Baltimore Ravens: How to balance Lamar Jackson’s dual threats

Baltimore Ravens should take advantage of Lamar Jackson’s athletic ability without abusing it:

The first thing that stands out about Lamar Jackson is how fast he is. He is the fastest quarterback in football and his legs are a weapon. It’s very important that Jackson’s athleticism becomes part of the Ravens plan. The threat that Jackson could take off running is something that defenses always have to be concerned about. That threat must always feel real. Jackson should have designed quarterback runs that coordinate with other running plays. The idea here is to make linebackers guess who will have the ball beyond the point of the hand off. Much like Gary Kubiak based so much off of his stretch running plays, Jackson keepers can be a foundation that Greg Roman can build off of.

Jackson needs to develop as a pocket passer, but his athleticism screams “Get him out of the pocket.” Play-action passes should often get Jackson rolling out of the pocket as a passer. The entire defense has to hone in on Jackson. Every time it could be a big pass completion or 10 easy yards for the former Heisman Trophy recipient. Linebackers will be caught in a bad spot. They will have to decide to take an angle towards Jackson or to cover their zone.

If the Ravens are smart they will unlock a great screen game and use it as a fundamental building block of the offense. Having Jackson run to the right but hitting Marquise Brown on a tunnel screen to the left is something to go for. A team that tries to use blitzing to keep Jackson in the pocket should have to deal with Mark Ingram, Justice Hill and even Hayden Hurst catching screen passes or shovel passes. Jackson gives the defense something to think about so every added thing that could cause hesitation is golden.

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The key is that Jackson’s running ability can’t be abused. They can’t have Jackson run the football 20-30 times a game. Jackson’s going to take hits, and he’s used to that at this point. The key is to avoid unnecessary hits. If Jackson learns to slide and get out of bounds when it’s appropriate this will go a long way. More importantly though, Roman has to manage the amount of hits he puts Jackson in the line of. It’s almost like a pitcher with a pitch count. Jackson needs to have a hit count so he can survive the full season as the starting quarterback.

Jackson’s running ability has to be treated the same way a defensive coordinator treats a blitz. The constant fear of a blitz is a good thing. Having the opponent’s protection scheme always having to account for a blitz is a good thing. Blitzing on a non stop basis will get you burnt though. It’s about timing and it’s about toying with the opponent. If Roman does this right, Jackson will have defenses guessing on every play.

The problem Marty Mornhinweg ran into was he didn’t know where to take the offense. They had established quite the groove as a run first team with a heavy quarterback run game plan. Mornhinweg pegged the Ravens into a one mode offense. Roman has to be fully creative, he can’t just use creative run schemes and call it an offense.

Lamar Jackson is the best dual threat quarterback to come into the league since Michael Vick. The amount of potential that Jackson has is incredible. The Ravens just have to manage the dual threat part of his game wisely.