Lamar Jackson still learning with Ravens
Ex-Boynton Beach star making real progress in Baltimore’s QB picture.
Ravens fans have fallen hard for former Heisman Trophy winner and Boynton Beach High product currently behind QB Joe Flacco.
Lamar
OWINGS MILLS, MD. — Jackson is new to the NFL, just a week into his first training camp,
but the Baltimore Ravens’ firstround draft pick already seems to understand, at least implicitly, the adage about the backup quarterback being the most popular guy in town.
On Sunday afternoon, in his first media availability since camp opened, Jackson was asked about his rapport with Ravens fans, who have fallen fast and hard for the former Heisman Trophy winner, if only out of the hope that he will supplant quarterback Joe Flacco this season. It has been hard, after all, to be a Flacco fan for several seasons now.
This was not a hard question for a rookie to answer, and Jackson’s response was ripped straight from the lesson plan of PR 101: “I love the Baltimore fans,” he said, before offering something of an explanation as to why.
They are, well, a little easy to please.
“You can just catch an out route — like, one of the players will catch, I would say, a ‘go’ ball,” he said, referring to two of the game’s simpler routes. “They’re cheering for you like you’re in the game or something like that. So it’s all love for the fans. We appreciate it.”
A week from the Ravens’ preseason opener, an Aug. 2 matchup with the Chicago Bears in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, it’s unclear whether the
former Boynton Beach High star is any closer to being in the game as the team’s primary option under center.
Flacco has been the team’s top quarterback, his experience and grasp of NFL defenses sometimes highlighting Jackson’s lack thereof. While Jackson has impressed with his ability to pass on the run, it seemed appropriate that perhaps the biggest cheer he earned Sunday came on a play in which he lined up in a two-quarterback formation with Flacco.
Five years ago, Flacco derisively said the Ravens’ now-defunct “Wildcat” formation, featuring backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor, made them look like a “high school offense.” Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg was noncommittal Sunday about the Ravens’ plans to use Jackson as a trick-play weapon — “We’ll see,” he said three times in one 13-word span — but he otherwise praised Jackson’s development as the No. 32 overall draft pick.
“Lamar’s done just an outstanding job,” Mornhinweg said. “Everybody in this league has some uncommon tools, and he certainly does. As far as his accuracy and all that, he’s really, really worked hard, and you can see on the practice field, it’s coming now.
“He’s getting better every day, and there will be a time where he takes a step back to kind of take two steps forward and all that . ... He’s way ahead of the curve now. This guy’s a hard, hard worker.”
His schedule has demanded it. Since playing the last game of his Louisville career on New Year’s Eve, Jackson has seldom had time to reflect on anything but those areas marked for improvement: his footwork, his understanding of NFL defenses, his willingness to be more of a pocket passer. He went from preparing for the NFL scouting combine to participating in it. He interviewed with teams across the league for the chance to be taken in the first round, then had to wait until the opening night’s final pick to hear his name called.
The Ravens’ extra week of practice time this preseason should help slow the game’s furious pace for a player accustomed to being the fastest on the field. And with Flacco’s veteran privileges affording him an early exit from practice last week, Jackson earned more repetitions against NFL-level talent. As if channeling Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” the rookie pointed out matter-of-factly: “You know, not (in) college or high school anymore.”