ExtremeRavens Posted August 29 Posted August 29 “You must be waiting for the fastest slow person in the building,” the female security guard standing outside the door leading from the Ravens’ practice field to the locker room said with an impish smile in the searing heat of the late afternoon summer sun. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is only a blur between the lines. Away from them, he often takes a more measured pace, like when this past offseason he attempted to give a friend a tattoo, carefully trying his skills with an ink gun. “Horrible,” he said of his tattooing ability as he sat down for a recent interview with The Baltimore Sun. “On a scale of 1 to 10, a zero.” Jackson’s skills with a football in hand, of course, rate much higher. It’s why he has been popping up all over the place in recent months — Paris for Fashion Week, New York for a Men’s Health workout video, and Las Vegas where this past February he became the youngest player at age 27 to collect a second NFL Most Valuable Player Award. It was a brief and bittersweet trip, however, with the more elusive Vince Lombardi Trophy handed out a few days later to the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who beat the Ravens in the AFC championship game on their way to a second straight title and third in five years. It was in that loss to the Chiefs at M&T Bank Stadium that Jackson made one of the more indelible plays in a long list of them — one that was as much emblematic of his dazzling talents but also perhaps of Baltimore’s shortcomings in its quest for its first Super Bowl title in more than a decade. With the Ravens trailing 14-7 with 5 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half and searching to find any kind of rhythm, Jackson dropped back to pass on second-and-5 from his own 18-yard line when blitzing safety Justin Reid batted the quarterback’s attempted dump-off to running back Justice Hill in the left flat skyward. Jackson tracked and chased down the fluttering ball, caught it and raced forward. The official stat line reads, “L. Jackson pass short left to L. Jackson to BLT 31 for 13 yards,” but it was the shoestring tackle by linebacker Drue Tranquill that lingered long after. “I want that to be a touchdown,” Jackson told The Sun when asked which play he would want back from last season. “That would’ve changed the dynamic of the game if I would’ve scored.” And in years past, perhaps he would have. “I was fat,” continues Jackson, noting his weight loss from 230 pounds two seasons ago to 210 last year to about 200 currently. “I had to lose some weight. No way a linebacker should be able to dive and grab my legs like that.” Instead of a potentially history-altering score, the drive ended in a punt. Baltimore knows the rest. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is entering his seventh year in the NFL. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) Months later, the painful sting of that defeat has subsided, washed away by the optimism of a new season. But if there was one thing Jackson’s first trip to a conference championship exposed — as if anyone needs to be reminded — it’s that the Ravens can’t solely rely on their star quarterback, even as his successes portend the team’s. There are other reasons for hope in 2024, though — notably Jackson’s increased comfort and involvement in Year 2 of coordinator Todd Monken’s offense after career highs in passing yards and completion percentage, the addition of four-time Pro Bowl running back and two-time NFL rushing champ Derrick Henry, and the burgeoning symmetry between the quarterback and second-year wide receiver Zay Flowers as well as emerging tight end Isaiah Likely. “You would hope it’s only going to get better, and it has,” Monken said. “Systematically and individually, it’s been a great offseason, and he’s been great.” How so? “Just how we do it,” Monken continued. “Just so we are on the same page probably. How do we streamline it to where we are on the same page? Players can anticipate calls, can anticipate situations where we want to go A, B, C, D each week. What are our staples that we want to be able to get to? So, eliminate as much of the guesswork as you can.” With less guesswork and more understanding of one another, Jackson says he appreciates the autonomy afforded him under Monken. One of the more entertaining examples last season came ahead of a key Week 16 showdown against the Miami Dolphins with the top seed in the AFC on the line. Jackson told Monken he was going to drop back as if he were left-handed in the game after having done so successfully in practice. The result of the play was a 75-yard bomb to Flowers with safety Javon Holland crossed up by the quarterback’s movement. “I’m listening to coach, seeing his vision, but certain things I see on the field or what I see on film, I’ll pitch my ideas,” Jackson says. “He’s a smart guy. He has answers. He’ll let me know right away. If he didn’t think about something, we can talk about it or he already has the answer on why we shouldn’t do this or should do that.” Having Henry, who last season rushed for 1,167 yards and 12 touchdowns and four years ago topped the 2,000-yard mark, should take some pressure off, too. The Ravens are long familiar with the 6-foot-2, 247-pound bruiser, whom they tried to acquire just ahead of the trade deadline last year. In Jackson’s other NFL MVP season, 2019, Henry decimated their defense in the playoffs with 198 yards on 30 carries for the Titans in a stunning 28-12 divisional round upset in Baltimore. And even at age 30 — a time when most backs’ production falls off a cliff — he has shown little in the way of slowing down. In his final game for Tennessee last season, Henry gashed the Houston Texans for 153 yards and hit 21.7 mph in the process, according to Next Gen Stats. But perhaps most intriguing or promising are the bonds Jackson has forged with Flowers and Likely. Lamar Jackson, left, has forged bonds with wide receiver Zay Flowers, middle, and tight end Isaiah Likely, right. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) The day after last season’s AFC title game — during which Flowers had a critical fumble as he stretched for the goal line in the fourth quarter — the quarterback visited the wide receiver’s home. He wanted to enlighten the then-rookie to the kind of reaction that would follow and to let him know the outcome was bigger than just one play. It was a big brother moment of sorts, which is how Jackson describes his relationship with the fellow South Floridian, but it wasn’t the only one. The two spent part of their offseason working out and hanging out. On the youth field where Jackson competed against Flowers’ brothers as a member of the Pompano Beach Cowboys, Flowers caught one pass after another from the quarterback. Off it, they grew even closer. “We were just working on timing, and sometimes it was me adding something to the top of the route or me doing a move that he likes,” Flowers told The Sun. “It’s just good being around each other. You don’t have to throw to have a connection — it’s better to throw, but hanging out and being with somebody, that will give you more of a feeling of how a person is.” Jackson is already well-acquainted with how Likely is and what his impact could be. Over his first two seasons, he has 66 catches for 784 yards and eight touchdowns, five of which came last year. He’s been a more than sufficient fill-in for when Mark Andrews has suffered injuries the past two years, including last season when he missed the final six games of the regular season and the divisional round of the playoffs. But this year, Jackson’s eyes widen over the possibilities and expectations of having Andrews and Likely on the field at the same time — and for good reason. Last year, the Ravens were one of the best teams in the NFL at getting a first down or scoring a touchdown when Andrews and Likely were both on the field. But it was a rare occurrence. According to TruMedia, Andrews and Likely were on the field for just 6.9% of Jackson’s passes. “That’s a two-headed monster right there,” Jackson says. “This year [Likely] is gonna be out of this world. We’ve seen it in practice. Every day he’s making something happen making a spectacular catch.” Jackson notes one play in particular that happened in a walk-through practice not open to the media when he threw a high pass against a quarters defense in which Likely went up and snared the overthrown ball with one hand while falling to the ground. “We were like ‘What the heck?’” Jackson said. “He’s what a quarterback wants.” Yet, there were and still are times when Jackson’s footwork can get sloppy, leading to inaccurate throws, short and deep. Other times, he has struggled to remain consistent in his progressions. But there’s been plenty of progress, too. Jackson has more input and better command of the offense. Last season, his scrambles outpaced his designed runs for the first time. And he often stayed behind the line — sometimes admittedly to his detriment — buying time with his feet as he worked to his third or even fourth target. Now in his seventh year in the league, Jackson attributes his growth and understanding of the scheme to being older and more mature as a player. “The game has slowed down a little for me,” he told The Sun. “I can react faster to certain things.” Coach John Harbaugh has been unusually effusive in his praise, particularly earlier in training camp when he put Jackson on an even higher pedestal. “The vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League,” he said. “That’s the vision. It’s going to happen by Lamar, his work ethic and his brilliant talent, by all of us pouring into that effort, together as a team, teamwork, and by the grace of God and God’s goodwill. That’s how it’s going to happen. And I believe it like we’ve already seen it.” Jackson demurred. “I’m not the GOAT, Tom Brady [is] the GOAT,” he said. “Yes, I believe that’s motivation — I appreciate that; I’m still on my way.” View the full article Quote
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