Lamar Jackson took home the second MVP award of his career last season, and the Baltimore Ravens added arguably the ideal running back for the scheme and supporting cast around him, in Derrick Henry, but the franchise has a secret weapon that could elevate the star quarterback’s game to new heights in 2024.
Just one year ago, Jackson led the Ravens to the AFC Championship Game while completing a career-best 67.2 percent of his passes for a career-high 3,678 yards with 24 touchdown passes to just seven interceptions. Meanwhile, Jackson also added 821 rushing yards and five more scores.
Ahead of his seventh NFL season, the Ravens are giving Jackson even more freedom to create at the line of scrimmage.
Baltimore Ravens are Lamar Jackson’s Team, More Than Ever
Jackson has earned the trust and confidence of head coach Jim Harbaugh and the Ravens coaching staff, and now will get to call the shots more often on offense, with a collection of talent that maybe has never been more complementary to him at any point in his career.
According to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, the Ravens plan to allow Jackson to call more audibles in 2024 than he has at any point previously.
“It’s like that smart kid in the classroom, you can’t allow them to get bored, right?” Ravens quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said, via ESPN. “He’s like that. You have to constantly add things, tweaks and things of that nature and responsibilities.”
Now, more often than previously, Jackson is going to be able to call the shots at the line of scrimmage for an offense that boasts Henry as a battering ram, Zay Flowers as a dynamic and explosive downfield threat, not to mention Jackson’s own versatility as an improved passer and capable runner who can exploit opposing defenses with his legs.
“It has been a tool in the past, and we’re just going to continue to take it to the next level,” Martin said. “Lamar is outstanding at it, whether we’re going non-verbal on the road or whether we’re going verbal at home. We have a lot of different ones that gives us an advantage so that people don’t know when we’re snapping the ball and slowing them down a little bit.”
“You’re not going to give a guy keys to the Ferrari and tell him to do 30 [miles per hour]. Sometimes as coaches, you can’t be scared when they make mistakes, and you can’t allow the mistakes that they make to put fear in your heart for not calling that play the next time, because without that, there is no growth.”
