3 advanced Lamar Jackson stats to know after Baltimore Ravens week one win

Lamar Jackson is now one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL. He also is now in a new scheme with Todd Monken as the Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator. So, there are plenty of new things for Jackson coming into this season. While one week is way too small of a sample size, it will be interesting to watch Jackson this season and see if there are any noteworthy trends to take in and follow during the next couple of weeks.

3. Lamar Jackson had too many turnover worthy plays for the Baltimore Ravens

Lamar Jackson is usually pretty sound when taking care of the football. He only had more than nine interceptions once in his career, and his 2.3% career interception rate, along with a 3.2% turnover-worthy play rate, speak to his ability.

However, in this game, he threw one interception, a 4.5% rate, and he also had three turnover-worthy plays. This was an 8.8% rate, which is pretty alarming. His career high coming into this year was a 3.7% turnover-worthy play rate, so this is either a one-week sample issue or this is going to stem a major problem that is lurking.

When his turnover-worthy play rate was at its highest, he also had a 5.4% big-time throw rate, per PFF. That was his career high and better than the 4.9% rate he holds for his career. On Sunday, his big-time throw rate was 3.8%, below average.

Jackson struggled to pass the ball under pressure. This could be because he was not used to his skill players and was doing too much under pressure. Still, he is usually more calm and collected under pressure. For example, he had two interceptions under pressure last year on 88 attempts; this year he has one in his first seven passes. Will this be a reoccurring issue for Lamar Jackson?

2. Lamar Jackson took too many sacks for the Baltimore Ravens

We noted that Lamar Jackson was struggling under pressure. This was not just passing the football. He also took far too many sacks. Jackson took four sacks on Sunday. It is easy to blame the offensive line, and they did struggle in this game. However, Jackson had to play better as well.

Jackson took a sack on 33.3% of the snaps when he faced pressure. That is a rough rate. For his career, his pressure-to-sack rate is just 20.2%. Last year, it was 20.9%, and his career high was 23.2%, and that was his rookie season. Overall, Jackson takes sacks, but he can avoid them more than he did on Sunday.

This typically would be passed off due to a small sample size, but it is in conjecture with Jackson having one of his worst games passing under pressure as well. Was Demeco Ryans confusing him? Were the new skill players causing him to pause under pressure, or is this going to become an issue for Lamar Jackson?

1. Lamar Jackson was throwing shorter and getting the ball out quicker for the Baltimore Ravens

We are not sure if this will be a theme going forward, but it is notable that Jackson had some of the lowest average depth of target as well as his quickest time to throw in his career. He had a depth of target of 5.1 yards. For his career, that number is 9.4, and last year that was 9.2. His career low was 8.9 as a rookie.

This is a small sample, but it is funny to note because we all assumed that Todd Monken would bring downfield passing to this offense, and now Jackson is throwing three full yards shorter on average. Also, his average time to throw was 2.87 seconds.

For his career, that number is 3.1, and last year he was at 3.11. His lowest rate was 3.06 in a season, and he does not often get the ball out under three seconds. That is what you get with Jackson, who can hold the ball, extend plays, and make things happen with his legs. That did not happen as much.

However, Jackson did scramble four times, a 13% rate. Last year, he scrambled just 6% of the time, and his career high was 11% as a rookie. So, the plan on Sunday was to either get the ball out quickly or get moving with a scramble. Often, this led to sacks, which may be why Monken dialed the passes to being so close to the line of scrimmage.

There are no breathtaking takeaways but rather interesting notes to make and questions to see if we get any trends moving forward.