Baltimore Ravens: Lamar Jackson could have historic season in 2019
The rushing side:
OK, let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room here… Lamar Jackson would have had 272(!!) carries in 2018 if he started 16 games. That would’ve been the second most carries in the entire NFL last season, only behind Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. Not great!
However, there’s something in those numbers that a lot of people are overlooking, and that’s that a solid amount of Jackson’s 119 carries (seven starts) as a rookie were kneel downs. People often forget that Jackson nearly went 7-0 as a starter in the regular season, and he was often kneeling the ball at least two-to-three times per game. If we say he kneeled down twice per game safely, that’s 14 “carries,” bringing it down to 105 carries, or 240 carries for 16 games. A significantly smaller number, but still would’ve been eighth in the NFL in 2018.
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Still not great numbers, but now take into account that those kneel downs are a loss of at least one-yard, if not two. So let’s add those losses back to his count, giving Jackson 570 rushing yards (implying each kneel down was a loss of two-yards). Just like that, Lamar Jackson’s projected rushing total shoots up to 1,303-yards, while his average goes from 4.7 YPC to 5.4 YPC.
Jackson’s projected rushing stats absolutely crush Vick’s in every aspect except YPC, where Vick has a sizeable advantage (8.4 vs. 5.4). Jackson would surpass Vick’s rushing attempts by more than double his (still not good), but Jackson would smash Vick’s rushing yards by almost 300-yards!
It’s hard to believe that Lamar Jackson could’ve easily accomplished this as just a 21-year old rookie. Considering Michael Vick was in the prime of his career when he put together his masterful 2006 season at 26-years old, it’s extremely exciting to see Jackson develop his game into becoming an even better dual-threat quarterback.
However, to be an efficient quarterback in general, Jackson must improve as a passer, where we will take a look next to compare him and Vick’s 2006 season.