Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson watched Jacoby Jones helped the team win the Super Bowl back in 2012. Now he wants to help the franchise win it again, and not just for himself and the team. He wants to honor Jones, who recently passed away at 40 from natural causes.
“I wasn’t a part of it then, but I’m trying to be a part of something with our guys”, he told Jonathan Jones on CBS recently, noting that “Jacoby Jones, rest in peace to him”, was a part of that last championship team.
The Ravens won their second Super Bowl, during the 2012 season, more than half a decade before they drafted Lamar Jackson, by which point Jacoby Jones had already retired. The 2012 season was Jones’ first with the Ravens, playing three seasons there. He even ended up very briefly with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015.
A 2007 third-round draft pick by the Houston Texans, Jacoby Jones played nine seasons in the NFL, where he best performed as a return man. He did catch 203 passes during his career for 2,733 yards, and made an iconic play during the Ravens’ run. But he recorded 4,940 kick return yards and 2,688 punt return yards during that time as well.
Jones had his best year in that 2012 season with the Baltimore Ravens, totaling nearly 2,000 all-purpose yards. That included 1,167 kick return yards and 406 receiving yards, with another 147 in the playoffs. He recorded 362 kick return yards in that postseason run, including a 108-yard touchdown in the Super Bowl.
Jacoby Jones also caught a 56-yard touchdown pass in that game from Joe Flacco, and you can bet that Lamar Jackson has seen those highlights numerous times over the years. He is now going into his seventh season still not much closer to the goal of a championship. Asked if this was going to be the year for them, he said if it is God’s will.
“For Jacoby [Jones], fly high for us, man”, Lamar Jackson said of the Ravens’ quest for a Super Bowl. “We’re trying to bring one home. And it’s gonna be in his hometown, New Orleans, and stuff like that. So we’re definitely trying to make something happen. But it starts in practice, and that’s all I can focus on right now. I can’t focus on the Super Bowl until we got that shot again”.
He was very proud of his New Orleans upbringing, and winning the Super Bowl in the Superdome meant the world to him. While the town has hosted 11 Super Bowls, this is the first they will host since that last Baltimore win. Lamar Jackson wants to make sure the Ravens make it a NOLA streak, in honor of Jacoby Jones.
