The biggest storyline in the AFC North this offseason has, indisputably, been Lamar Jackson. When you have a young NFL MVP whose contract status is uncertain and who publicly declares that he has requested a trade, it’s going to supersede anything else.
Well, the Baltimore Ravens finally got him under contract just as the 2023 NFL Draft was getting underway, throwing a couple of boatloads of money at him—as well as a cache of wide receivers. And they already had swapped out play-callers. In the eyes of NFL analyst and former NFL player Emmanuel Acho, the past several months put all the pressure on Jackson now.
“Lamar’s out of excuses. In my mind, he’s gotten everything that he has wanted”, he recently said the Speak program on FS1, proceeding to run down the list of changes made this offseason, coupled with what was already there. “What else could he need? What else could he want? No more excuses. Not in my eyes, at least”.
The Ravens have perennially struggled to build a strong wide receiver group, their prioritizing of which has varied significantly. Yet I don’t think there’s anybody who has drafted more players at the position in the first round in the past decade, with Breshad Perriman in 2016, Marquise Brown in 2019, Rashod Bateman in 2021, and now Zay Flowers in 2023. Only the latter two are still with the team.
But the team also added three other former first-round picks to the roster via free agency at the position, with Odell Beckham Jr. being the obvious headliner. They also signed Nelson Agholor, who has been a consistent role player over the years, and Laquon Treadwell, who has been an outright bust and frankly probably won’t make the team.
“Now the talent around him is starting to be historically good. At least, historically deep”, Acho said. “We haven’t seen a team with five first-round picks at wide receiver—at least all of those first-round picks catch passes. We might see that for the first time in NFL history”.
“Five first-round picks for Lamar Jackson, plus an All-Pro tight end, a second-round pick at running back in J.K. Dobbins”, he went on. “New OC? You got it. Todd Monken. Help at wide receiver? You got it. Odell Beckham, Nelson Agholor, Zay Flowers. Tight end, All-Pro, quarterback’s best friend? You got it, Mark Andrews. Running game, the Ravens have [had] one of the best running games the last five years since Lamar entered the league”.
The one thing Jackson doesn’t have is any assurance of a healthy season, which is the only thing that has held the Ravens back the past two years. Had he not missed 10-plus games during that time, plus a postseason appearance last year, we might be having a very different discussion.
But bolstering the receiving corps is a part of the process of trying to better protect Jackson—even if his significant injuries have not come from him running, but rather in the pocket.
