Ravens’ Jackson knows what he is
BALTIMORE — If Lamar Jackson seems from afar as if he has been through this before, facing existential questions about what type of quarterback he is and what he can be, forced to examine his future just days after his first career start, it is because the Baltimore Ravens rookie pretty much already has.
Three years before his legs powered the Ravens to a crucial victory last week over the Cincinnati Bengals, Jackson supplanted Louisville’s starting quarterback midway through the Cardinals’
2015 sea- son opener against Auburn. A true freshman, he was not especially productive or prolific through the air. He had more carries than he did completions. He led the team in rushing yards.
The past was not necessarily prologue — Louisville lost that game, after all — but the uncanny parallels between then and now extended to even the postgame narratives. Bobby Petrino, Jackson’s coach, was asked about his quarterback’s running, just as John Harbaugh was this week. How much was too much?
Said Petrino in 2015: “The good thing about him is, he really wants to throw it, and he does a good job of going through his progressions and, if it’s there, flicking his wrist and going. There were probably three instances the other night when he’s dropping back and the middle just opens up, playing man-under coverage, and he just takes off and runs. … So I thought he did a really nice job of deciding when to go and when to stay in the pocket.”
Said Harbaugh last Sunday: “There were some runs that could have been throws in there. With the third downs, we were just in a position where we could run it. We didn’t have to throw it as much. But we’ll be throwing the ball quite a bit in the future. It wasn’t by design; it kind of played out that way.”
The Ravens drafted Jackson to be their quarterback of the future because of what he developed into at Louisville. He finished each of his final two college seasons with more than 1,500 rushing yards, yes, but also more than 3,500 passing yards. In 2015, against Auburn, his first career pass attempt was an interception. A year later, when he won the Heisman Trophy, he averaged more than 31 pass attempts and less than one interception per game.
The hope in Baltimore, where the Ravens (5-5) will face the Oakland Raiders (28) today in another vital home game, is that Jackson’s unique dual-threat talents will fully translate to the next level. The trouble is Jackson is still so inexperienced against NFL defenses, no one yet knows what will work best. It is a calculus with too many variables.
Not that there is any less clarity than before Week 11. Harbaugh’s most revealing and least surprising acknowledgment this past week was that 27 carries were too many for Jackson. Too many for any player, much less a quarterback. In 2006, Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson set the single-season NFL record for rushing attempts with 416 in 16 games — 26 per game. And besides Jackson, only three other quarterbacks in the NFL’s modern era have had at least 15 carries in a game.
“But I didn’t get banged up, which is cool on that part,” Jackson said Wednesday. “But 27 rushes — I didn’t know about it until after the game. I was like, ‘I ran 27 times?’ ”
With Jackson under center at least until starter Joe Flacco recovers from a right hip injury, the Ravens find themselves in an unusual position for an NFL team in 2018. Every team except the Seattle Seahawks and the Tennessee Titans this season has passed more often than it has rushed.