Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is going into his seventh NFL season. In his second year with Todd Monken as offensive coordinator, they are finally giving him the power to audible freely. It’s something the Ravens spent spring practices working on, and about which head coach John Harbaugh acknowledges they “still have a long way to go”.
A first-round pick out of Louisville in 2018, Lamar Jackson is unquestionably one of the best players in the NFL. Nevertheless, he has struggled to get over the final hump of playoff success. He has a losing postseason record and has tended to play poorly in said losses, last year no exception.
The Ravens are hoping that giving Jackson more freedom to put the offense in the best possible play is the key to getting over that hump. They scored just 10 points in the conference finals last season against the Kansas City Chiefs. That included not running the ball, and Harbaugh explained that they couldn’t get into the right run calls.
If they had given Jackson the freedom to audible in those situations, they could have done that. And that is why they are placing so much emphasis on it now. The Ravens began this process last year when they hired Monken as offensive coordinator, but there is still work to do.
Jackson talked about getting “the keys to the offense” last year under Monken. “You can change things when you want to”, he explained, referring to audibles, though clearly that wasn’t the case. Not to the extent that they are trying to install now. Perhaps they intended to install more last year but the Ravens offense wasn’t ready for it? It’s impossible for me to say.
What I do know is that the way the Ravens are talking about last year, they clearly expect a difference from last season. “From us watching film and getting into games, teams changing things up on us, we just want to add extra layers to all of our calls”, Jackson said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.
Ravens quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said that Jackson calling audibles “has been a tool in the past”. He added that they are looking to take it to another level this year—presumably more in line with others. Under Greg Roman, Jackson seemingly had very little freedom to audible.
Hensley explains some of the ways in which the Ravens have been working on Jackson’s audibling during the spring. They have been actively blitzing and throwing different looks at him, encouraging him to audible. Even when he audibles into a play that was ill-advised, they feel they are making progress through the process.
There will inevitably be some mockery from non-Ravens fans, certainly from Steelers fans. Last year, we were talking about how the Steelers needed to give second-year Kenny Pickett more freedom. In Baltimore, they’re talking about a two-time league MVP in Lamar Jackson learning something that is reasonably basic.
It is true that Jackson’s greatest strength is his athleticism. He has rarely relied upon his attributes as a pocket passer, nor as a defensive processor. But he has made strides over the years in the more conventional “quarterbacking” arenas. Perhaps this next step of freedom to help him better set himself up for success is what he needs.
But hopefully not.
