Is He Worth It? – Lamar Jackson

It seemed like the entire offseason was spent pondering the unthinkable prospect of Lamar Jackson actually departing the Baltimore Ravens.

The winner of the 2019 MVP engaged in a long, extended standoff with Baltimore over his payment, initially given the conditional franchise tag that allowed the Ravens to outright place him on the trade market. Then, on Twitter, Jackson stated his intent to play for a different team than the Ravens.

It got ugly, as no one wanted Jackson, and John Harbaugh was constantly pressed by the media as to what Jackson’s future was. Further, it was almost as if the Ravens were gambling that Jackson’s value was less than perceived: their confidence he would be back, and willingness to let him sniff the trade market, meant that something was up.

Then, immediately after the signing of a certain wide receiver that wears number 13, Lamar Jackson was signed to a five-year deal worth an average of $52 million per year, topping the contract signed by Jalen Hurts as the biggest in the NFL at the time of the deal.

Lamar Jackson, an MVP and one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL, is also an extremely unique player who poses an extremely unique situation when it comes to building an offense around him. On one hand, Lamar Jackson is perhaps the best runner to ever play the quarterback position, and he is an uncannily efficient passer from the pocket when things become advantageous.

At the same time, the way you need to construct an offense around him requires many, many things that are different from the norm compared to typical NFL quarterbacks.

This is great when you talk about quarterbacks on rookie deals that let you load up on talent and fire away. Giving a quarterback with an unorthodox skill set like Jackson’s a massive contract means that you insist he is as good as the proven best in the NFL.

And most of the controversy comes here. Lamar Jackson is different. People are not used to different. Taking on Lamar Jackson, as I will explain here, means that you completely overhaul your existing system, and by extension many of your players, in order to reshape it to what he does.

When teams passed on taking him on, they were not doing it because of how great he was. They were doing it because they balked at walking on the rest of the existing system and team.

But how, exactly, does that translate when we watch Jackson play? And how does it translate to the contract that the Ravens gave him? Why did the Ravens pay him when the open market balked?  Let’s dive in. This is the fourth edition of Is He Worth It.

How does Jackson play?

At the core of Lamar Jackson’s game is the way that he runs the football. Jackson is not only as fast as a track sprinter, he has abnormally high acceleration by the standards of any professional athlete in existence.

For example, on 2nd and 9 against the Dolphins in Week 2, Jackson motions a tight end to his right in eye formation, and boots out to his right after a playfake. Faced with a one-deep safety zone coverage, he decides to simply immediately tuck and run. The sheer amount of forward momentum and raw leg speed that he generates allows him to run past three defenders before he gets out of bounds for the first down.

This play evidences a few things. Because Jackson is such a threat as a runner, the Ravens are able to use a lot of concepts from I formation, as well as other run-heavy formations like singleback and wishbone, in order to force defenses to play aggressively with a lot of defenders pressing the offensive line. And far too often, Jackson has enough speed where this simply does not matter, which makes him a cheat code in the run game.

Jackson even has a play on a simple fake sweep where he completely busts through a loaded box for a long touchdown. Faced with eight defenders up in the box, and blanket man coverage, Jackson simply executes a fake sweep to the right, and rams through every ounce of traffic the Dolphins have.

This is the kind of call and defense that only Lamar Jackson can get away with. Jackson is such a freakish downhill athlete, that the Ravens can basically force defenses to get far too aggressive for their own good-meaning that Lamar is going to get into the open field and have his way.

It also enables the Ravens to simplify their passing offense, and make it far more efficient. The offense is filled with simple hitch routes and slant combinations that take advantage of one on one matchups with targets like Rashod Bateman, Mark Andrews, and Devin Duvernay.

The offense also creates abnormal busts in the middle of the field. On a 2nd and 6 against the Dolphins with 2:58 left in the 1st quarter, the Dolphins play press man everywhere, and leave 7 defenders up front to contain anything coming out of the backfield. This means that a crosser by Mark Andrews comes far more wide open than it should be, and Jackson finds it for the first down.

So here lies the unorthodox nature of the Ravens offense, and what Lamar Jackson enables. It is built to not just take advantage of aggressive, man-coverage, front-heavy defense, but to totally mutilate it under Jackson’s feet.

Negative consquences

Lamar Jackson is a less effective quarterback at attacking complex coverages from the pocket. In 2022 in particular, this weakness to his game was exacerbated by the design of offensive coordinator Greg Roman.

In week 4, during a matchup between the Ravens and the Bills, Buffalo defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier operated a higher usage of zone with less people in the box, in response to the Ravens opting to throw more than usual against an extremely fierce defense against the run. This resulted in Lamar having to dice up coverage with his arm, and Greg Roman having to come up with plays that could get receivers open in space.

The plays that worked best were quick throws to the middle of the field anytime the Bills dropped into a quarters coverage, such as a routine slant to the outside of the field on 3rd and 18. Here, the Ravens didn’t have to deviate too much from the simplified vertical passing concepts they feast on, and Jackson was able to operate comfortably and accurately.

Other times, Jackson would have to try and throw a window he wasn’t comfortable making. Nowhere was this more apparent than the very last drive of the game, where the Ravens had a chance to win late in the rain over a very good team.

On 1st and Goal, with 6:25 left and the game tied at 20, Lamar Jackson had a very simple cover 4 look where the middle the field would come open, and if he sits in the pocket and plants it, he will throw for a touchdown.

Instead, Jackson dances around while the pocket slowly comes towards him, before releasing a very low throw that, while it gets closer to the end zone on a crosser by Devin Duvernay, should be a touchdown if he supplies a more accurate release.

This points toward Jackson’s release at times getting wobbly while in the pocket, alongside his occasional instinct to bail if his first read isn’t present. Further, Greg Roman does not call a route that would go right in between the two deep safeties into the middle of the field, making life more difficult for Jackson than it has to be.

On the 3rd and Goal of this very same drive, Jackson has nothing coming to the open area of coverage under the left cornerback above the linebacker, another failure by Greg Roman. With nothing open on this play, he has to dive forward for 1 yard, not even attempting a pass.

The very next play is a disaster. Against, once again, the same zone coverage, all of Jackson’s flaws from the pocket manifest themselves into one big interception.

He backs out of the pocket, his only options being an infeasible flat to his right, as well as a crosser right underneath a safety that, if attempted, is probably deflected. Jackson promptly forces the right corner route, resulting in a double coverage interception.

Jackson needs a clear safety valve, as well as better offensive design, if he is going to succeed from the pocket in a situation like this. Greg Roman, designing an offense that made his strengths stronger, inadvertently exacerbated the less feasible aspects of his game.

New Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken has a task to add this to Jackson’s repertoire, as well as to rein in Jackson’s instinct to rush to get out of the pocket.

Final evaluation

Player Grade: A

Contract Grade: A

In terms of whether his contract is worth it, Lamar Jackson is an extremely tricky evaluation-not because of his talent, but because of everything that goes into scheming up the offense. If another team was making the move to trade for Jackson and completely shift gears to an offense that he could work within, I would have more skeptical thoughts.

But from the vantage point of the Ravens, they now have the luxury of keeping an extremely strong scheme and infrastructure intact that has been tailored to Lamar Jackson while paying him-AND they had room to sign Odell Beckham Jr on top of it. So, they get to keep what they already do well intact while evolving to get better in the passing game.

The new offense from Todd Monken will hopefully allow the Ravens to do just that. The offense is built on having an athletic quarterback who can create mismatches, as well as throw from the pocket-exactly what Lamar Jackson is becoming, and very well can be.