Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson wants his wide receivers to come to him during the break before training camp. It is essential to compete for a Super Bowl, he said, though coming from him, it rings a bit hollow. After all, as Jeff Zrebiec pointed out for The Athletic, he is the one who skipped most of the OTAs.
“They’re going to have to come to South Florida. They’re going to have to do it. We’re trying to get to the Super Bowl, and for us to do that, we have to grind. We have to build chemistry”, Zrebiec quoted Jackson as saying during mandatory minicamp.
“The irony, of course, is that it was Jackson who didn’t attend more than half of the voluntary organized team activities, which are opportunities to grind, build chemistry and get on-field work with pass catchers”, he added.
Zrebiec did point out that Jackson smiled as he said it, “so he may have been having fun with his non-South Floridian teammates”. Still, it’s a bit rich for your franchise quarterback to say this after skipping practices, voluntary or not. If you believe in voluntary work as necessary, then shouldn’t you show up to the voluntary practices?
Players are under no obligation to show up for OTAs, nor do they have to specify why they’re not there. But we never learned why Jackson skipped the majority of the Ravens’ OTA sessions, so we don’t know if he had a “good reason” for doing so. One would hope that he did if he’s now expecting his teammates to attend his voluntary workouts and travel from potentially all over the country to do so.
Zrebiec wrote that Lamar Jackson is “not a guy who throws teammates under the bus”, and that’s quite true. “If he was serious, though, and strongly believes in the importance of these throwing sessions, it’s fair to ask why the offseason workouts and OTAs aren’t held in the same regard”.
The Baltimore Ravens had arguably their best season in 2023 since drafting Lamar Jackson in 2018. After cruising through the regular season and securing a first-round bye, they reached the AFC Championship game only to lose to the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Jackson earned his second league MVP Award after going 307-for-457 for 3,678 yards with 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He rushed for 821 yards with another five touchdowns, going 13-3 as a starter. On top of that, he also finally had a good playoff game. In a win over the Houston Texans, he went 16-for-22 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns with 100 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
This year, he has Zay Flowers, Nelson Agholor, and Rashod Bateman as wide receivers. Odell Beckham Jr. is now gone. Isaiah Likely will also have a bigger role next to Mark Andrews at tight end. Jackson played with all of them last year, but most are still relatively new. And by his own admission, they need more time together. So why didn’t he make use of that time during OTAs?
