Lamar Jackson shows ‘it’ factor
OWINGS MILLS, Md. – They started to gather about 20 minutes before practice ended, about 100 kids lining up one by one along a rope stretching from the Baltimore Ravens offices to the bleachers on the opposite side of the practice fields. They waited.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson lifted his helmet off, grabbed a marker from a team official and started at the front.
As captivating as Jackson can be on the field, he can be just as fascinating to fans in an autograph line. He is still Joe Flacco’s backup here, but he drew perhaps the biggest crowd of signature-seeking children on the grounds.
He always has — at the NFL scouting combine in March when he was not the highestrated quarterback, at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in December when he was not the winner. In Louisville, and in South Florida before that, Jackson became a star. Baltimore is starting to get its first taste.
“Everywhere you go, there’s a Baltimore fan showing you love, just like you’re family,” Jackson said. “It’s great to have, out in an environment where you’re not from.”
He signed footballs and jerseys and T-shirts and towels and helmets and hats. He signed every item in front of him. Team staffers had to move him along to keep the line going, but parents standing behind their kids wanted pictures. So Jackson stopped and obliged.
“Lamar, have you seen Joe Flacco?” one child asked. Unfazed, Jackson smiled and swiveled his head around, looking for the franchise quarterback. He finished that line and then visited a crowd against the wall of the building, signed more, posed again. He encouraged a boy in a wheelchair. He draped a purple towel over his head near the end.
The Ravens listed 91 players on the roster they distributed at the start of the week. Only two lingered on the field longer than Jackson. Bystanders said that was not unusual.
“The city is electric,” said Dave Pollitt, the general manager of Mother’s Grille in Federal Hill, a half-mile from M&T Bank Stadium. “Everybody is really excited to get the season started.”
Much of that excitement comes from Jackson, one of the Ravens’ two first-round picks in the NFL draft. Since they won the Super Bowl in 2013, the Ravens have an even 40-40 record, making the playoffs just once.
Recently, Baltimore has been a city without a football superstar. Despite going 9-7, the Ravens did not have a player whose jersey sales were among the 30 most popular during the 2017 season, according to the NFL Shop. In the rankings released for April 1-June 23, 2018, Jackson cracked the list at No. 22.
“He’s got a skill set that I feel like we haven’t had in one guy in a while,” Pollitt said. “He just offers that ‘it’ factor that we just haven’t had.”
Jackson is clearly still the Baltimore Ravens’ backup quarterback. But early in their training camp, the Ravens are finding ways to involve him in the offense elsewhere, and that could be exciting for many.
In the Ravens’ third full team practice of the season, Jackson did the full workout behind Flacco but also lined up as a slot receiver at least twice. From the slot, Jackson motioned to the right before the snap, took a handoff or pitch from Flacco, cut back to the left and threw downfield. He completed passes both times.
Jackson might be a fresh start for the Ravens at some point. For now, he is at least an infusion of energy.
“I think they just have a little bit more swagger on offense, and that’s what we’ve been missing,” said Kamal Adams, who lives in nearby Rosedale and just bought a Jackson jersey for his son, Camron. He was sitting and expressing excitement about Jackson when Ravens staffers took Camron to the autograph line.
Off the field, Jackson has never sought out attention, though he does not shy away from it. As he left the 2017 Heisman Trophy ceremony — after learning that he had lost — he agreed to photos with fans even as security guards flanked Jackson attempting to keep them away.
In Baltimore, Jackson seems to have settled in again.
“Just knowing that kids look up to you and they admire you is great,” he said.