1. One of the finest traditions in professional sports is when a NFL defensive coach or front-office type metaphorically waves his private parts around and proclaims, “We did it, we figured out [Player X],” a message that is then relayed around the world by their a network of access journalists. We’ve now been treated to this phenomenon—twice!—regarding Lamar Jackson.
Here’s the thing: It doesn’t really matter if defenses have “figured out” Jackson. His first-step quickness—the ability to accelerate from a full stop—is incredible. Any 220- to 320-pound defender who leans even slightly in the wrong direction when closing in on Jackson is at risk of getting blown by. Teams “figured out” Adrian Peterson in 2014, they just couldn’t tackle him. Jackson is the same way. He is different stylistically, but like Peterson he is special with the ball in his hands.
As a passer, Jackson plays with exceptional poise in the pocket and is adept at mapping the moving bodies in the middle of the field; if he didn’t improve at all over last season’s performance, he’d still be very good. But this was supposed to be the season when his game expanded. His weakness has always been throwing outside the numbers, seemingly because he hasn’t done it much and has trouble calibrating those throws, but also likely because the Ravens haven’t had the outside weapons to help him in that area. So this past offseason, Baltimore drafted Rashod Bateman and signed Sammy Watkins to upgrade their perimeter weapons. Only, Bateman we down this summer and Watkins missed the bulk of training camp, meaning neither got much of the crucial preseason work they needed with Jackson.
On top of that, the Ravens’ offensive line is now in absolute shambles as they get set to host the Chiefs. Tyre Phillips, who moved to left guard, is out. The bigger issue is at tackle. The team was clearly caught off-guard by Orlando Brown Jr.’s trade demand last spring, and they didn’t find a solution to replace him at right tackle. Eventually they patched the hole with ex-Steeler Ali Villanueva—a stunner considering the Ravens play Pittsburgh twice a year and surely should have recognized how that Steelers offense schemed around the shortcomings of Villanueva, who had drawn no interest on the free-agent market. On Monday night, Villanueva made Maxx Crosby look like he had garnered some kind of god-like ability to manipulate time and space on his way to the offensive backfield (Crosby is a fine player, but c'mon). Now, left tackle Ronnie Stanley (who didn’t cover himself in glory on MNF either) is likely out, meaning Sunday night it will be Villanueva at left tackle and Patrick Mekari, who made eight starts on the interior last season, at right tackle.
Any plans of expanding the passing game now go out the window, as even if Jackson was comfortable with his outside receivers (Watkins is back, Bateman is not) the pocket will likely be non-existent for a while. In the likely event that the Chiefs beat Baltimore again there will be lots of bad takes off of what happens Sunday night. But the decimated supporting cast means it’s going to be a lost night, in what’s shaping up to be a lost season for Jackson from a development standpoint.
