Dear Lamar: John Harbaugh has misused you

Dear Lamar Jackson,

Is it possible that you don’t like the way Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and company have tried to change you from an NFL Most Valuable Player (2019) to an old school “stay more in the pocket” quarterback? And, in fact, this is why you had a season-ending injury last year and this year you experienced another injury, this one caused by your being sacked while trying to stay in the pocket longer than you would naturally do (“Mike Preston’s Ravens mailbag on Lamar Jackson’s trade value, coach Ed Reed and more,” Jan. 4)?

You are a running quarterback with incredible peripheral senses of when someone is approaching you, and you won the MVP and broke records with that approach. For Harbaugh and others to try to change your natural talents and make you something you are not is ridiculous. I don’t blame you for staying away from their approach, and perhaps you are moving toward a team (and coach) who will encourage you to be the great running quarterback that you are.

I just wish Harbaugh would be fired and you would stay with the Ravens. Harbaugh really knows very little about how to deal with superstars like you, Lamar. The best to you wherever you end up.

Sincerely,

— Duke “Duke of Baltimore” Thompson, Havre de Grace