Baltimore Ravens: Starting to ‘tinker’ with Lamar
Lamar Jackson is an elite playmaker. The former NFL MVP is nearly impossible to stop and what makes him even harder for defenses to deal with is the simple fact that he’s not like any other quarterback they face.
Some will use that to pick on Jackson, calling him a running back — but that’s short-sighted. What he really is, is the best dual-threat quarterback since Mike Vick. He can kill teams with his legs and while he will never be Patrick Mahomes, he does enough with his arms to win.
However, the Ravens are now trying to mess with that a little as offensive coordinator Greg Roman says Baltimore will be using him under center this season, rather than in the pistol which is what he primarily operated out of.
"“That is definitely going to be a part of what we do this year — the percentage of which I cannot state at this point,” Roman said via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “I don’t know the extent of it. But we are working on it and evaluating it every day.”"
Perhaps they toy with this and toss the idea, but if the Ravens do decide to try and make Jackson more like other quarterbacks, it would be a mistake. He’s different, and it works. Trying to change him wouldn’t be the way to go.
He’s never going to be a traditional drop-back passer and that’s fine. Let Lamar do what Lamar does and teams will continue to struggle with how to stop him.