The Baltimore Ravens must invest in Lamar Jackson to make their offense work in the NFL postseason. The ultimate goal of the organization is to bring a third Super Bowl title to Baltimore. The Ravens have an amazing talent under center. The only way to get over the hump is to invest in the offense around that amazing talent.
Every time Jackson or the Ravens stumble, people want to point out that it isn’t going to work. Jackson is the only former MVP of his league in professional sports that had large factions of fans wondering if he can ever be his team’s long-term answer. It makes no sense.
Jackson won the MVP award in 2019, his jaw-dropping talent didn’t go anywhere in a calendar year. The Ravens went 6-1 in 2018 when Jackson took over for Joe Flacco. They had an unbelievable 14-2 season in 2019. The 2020-2021 season brought the Ravens an 11-5 regular-season record and Jackson’s first playoff win.
Counting the playoffs the purple and black have gone 31-11 with Jackson as the franchise quarterback. In a league where winning the championship is hard to do, this is a success. The Jackson era is working out for the Ravens, the playoff defeats have just stained the general perspective of their quarterback’s tenure.
The passing game wasn’t good enough this past season. I say past season because as of Saturday evening the year of football games was over for the Ravens. Jackson’s frustrating night was front and center. The concept that it’s not all on the quarterback is an idea that so many people need to come to understand.
Let’s talk Greg Roman:
The Ravens’ offense isn’t built to throw the football. Fans desperately want to heap this all onto one scapegoat. The popular picks are either the quarterback or the offensive coordinator, Greg Roman. Let’s talk about Roman. Roman was formerly the run game coordinator. It was a fancy term to say Marty Mornhinweg doesn’t get the run game.
As clueless as their former frustrating play-caller was on the ground, Roman is helpless through the air. He just doesn’t get it. Route spacing isn’t his friend. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to it and it doesn’t encourage Jackson to attack the whole field.
The predictability of the offense is partly rooted in just how pedestrian his concepts are. Roman is creative with the run game and restricted to his narrow idea of what the passing game should be. Jackson may like throwing to the middle of the field yet he needs a coach that gets him out of his comfort zone.
Make no mistake about it, Jackson is the franchise quarterback. Baltimore needs growth from Jackson on a year to year basis. The offensive coordinator is ultimately responsible for that growth. The offense is in Roman’s hands. He didn’t build the offense around the run game. He built a run game and that’s the offense.
Let’s talk wide receivers:
Marquise Brown is Jackson’s go-to target. Brown has a lot of things going for him. He’s quick, blazing fast and, when he’s on his game he runs incredible routes. One thing that Brown doesn’t have going for him is catch radius. Brown is a 5’9″ receiver who basically plays like a 5’9″ receiver.
Miles Boykin has shown some good things, but he’s not exactly a top-tier number two target at wide receiver. Dez Bryant has limitations after being out of football since 2017. As big of a Bryant fan as I am, his lack of speed makes him almost more of a third tight end than a receiver.
Willie Snead is a player that Ravens fans should have a lot of respect for. I’d even argue that every offense should have a role player just like him. When this is the group of receivers around him though, what’s the point?
We don’t know if Devin Duvernay is good yet. We know that he has potential. That’s it. The Ravens hardly used him. James Proche basically got ignored to the point where they didn’t even have him suit up for games. There may never have been a more affordable group of receivers and the play on the field shows that.
Mark Andrews is the crown jewel of the passing game. He’s the one weapon that has the prototypical traits of an elite player at his position. Somehow this offense only netted Andrews 58 receptions. Who else did Roman have to draw up plays for? The tight end should have gotten 75 receptions or more this year, even in a run-first offense.
Now tell me, with all of the above being true, how was Jackson supposed to have more than 2,757 yards? The Ravens worried about the run game, then said Jackson will make the rest work. The Ravens need to give Jackson an actual NFL offense to work with.
The bottom line:
I could sit here at my keyboard and give you proclamations and bold criticisms of Jackson. I could tell you how he forced an interception into zone coverage against the Bills, how it was one of the dumbest throws of Jackson’s career. I could write 1,000 words on everything Jackson has to work on this offseason.
My question to you is, what would be the point? On Saturday night the Baltimore Ravens couldn’t catch the football; forget that they could even snap it. Jackson had 3,762 total yards of production this year. He had 33 total touchdowns. Who cares how it came? He did everything for this offense, he clearly needs some help.
Now, if the Ravens give Jackson the tools that he needs in the passing game and it doesn’t work this is a different conversation. Stop pinpointing everything on the idea that Jackson needs to develop as a passer. He’s got too much talent not to be excited about his future. Does he need to develop? Absolutely. The only proclamation I have for you though is that if the Ravens don’t invest in the offense around Jackson, they will waste the most exciting play-maker I have ever seen.