Lamar Jackson QB1

[SalvadorsDeli]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2897916-lamar-jacksons-qb-coach-pinpoints-where-mvp-can-still-improve

Lotta good nuggets here from Lamar's QB guru about what he's been working on this offseason. Couple things stick out to me:

Quote

 

"We had this conversation when I first saw him this offseason," Harris said. "I told him, 'Well, now you know you're the MVP.' He looked at me strangely because we never talk about accolades. He responded, 'What do you mean, Coach?' He might have been a target before because he's the quarterback, but he's going to have a huge target on his back, and they're going to prepare more for your game.

"He explicitly said to me, 'They're preparing for me, but I'm preparing more for them. I'm going to keep a chip on my shoulder.' He remembers being in that room before becoming the 32nd overall pick. That fuels all of his preparation and where his mindset is. He doesn't see himself as the MVP; he sees himself as the fifth quarterback taken in his draft class."

 

I've probably said this already but one thing that really sticks out about Lamar is that he really does seem to have THAT competitive gene that the best athletes have. A permanent chip on his shoulder. You don't worry about him getting complacent or feeling like he made it - he treats himself like a disrespected underdog and always wants to put in the work to prove people wrong. MJ is the best example of that kind of athlete, just taking literally anything people say to him as a personal slight that makes him want to beat you even more. But you see it in a guy like Brady too, even after winning multiple championships he always managed to twist a situation into one where he felt like the world was against him and that he needed to ball out to prove the haters wrong. Lamar's built the same way. Not to harp on it again but that's always been the difference between Flacco and the greats. Flacco's too normal a dude to think that way. Lamar's just wired differently. He'll tune out the praise and focus on everyone talking about his playoff record, for the rest of his career he'll remember the Bill Polians telling him to move to WR, and he's just gonna be a better player because of it.

It's something that's always stuck out to me about Lamar - it's why I was similarly not worried about him being 'solved' after the Chargers playoff loss, because I trusted he was gonna put in the work to make sure that game wasn't the last word on him as a QB. Whatever weaknesses he has as a player, you can trust that he's not gonna leave any stone unturned in trying to get better.

Article wasn't all just about the mental/competitive stuff, some interesting details about the mechanical things that Harris has pinpointed for improvement from Lamar to work on his deep passing: 

 

Quote

 

"When I looked at Lamar this past season, the thing that seemed to stick out to me—and the Ravens seemingly saw the same thing from their quotes—is Lamar needs to work on deep-ball consistency, hitting that deep ball in stride," Harris said. "And the most important to me: throws outside the numbers. Those need to be consistent with velocity.

"With the outside-the-numbers throws, the main thing is getting more of his lower half into the throw. A lot of times, those throws are more arm strength than incorporating his lower half for him—which creates lost velocity. As a result, the ball tends to tail off at the end. This allows the defensive back to jump the route, or it doesn't get where it needs to be."

 

 

[Danand]

Lamar has recognized it as a weakness himself, so I won't harp too much on it, but against the Titans it was those outside the numbers throws - especially those that stick to the sideline, that caused him trouble. The ball simply didn't have enough zip on it, and you can't make touch passes on out breaking routes.

I think he will be able to learn as neither arm strength or the technique is an issue as he seem comfortable with those zip throws across the middle. I think it is mostly a timing and technique thing he has to work on.

For all that has been made of Lamars fondness of tight ends and throws over the middle, I think getting more of those outside throws, comeback routes and screens incorporated would give us a much needed dimension.

While Justice Hill is in danger of being the forgotten man in the RB talk, I think he is our best swing pass option as well as running routes down the sideline. We saw it late in the season that when Lamar hit him on those swing passes, he gets up field fast and get 7-8 yards easily. The guy who has the youtube channel "QB school" mentioned, that Ravens kept the runningbacks back in pass protection maybe a tad too long instead of being outlets. If the coaching staff changes up the system to let Hill/Dobbins/Ingram release out earlier, we hopefully should be able to get those 5-10 yard gains from easy completions to Lamars outlet.

[diamondbull424]

1 hour ago, Danand said:

While Justice Hill is in danger of being the forgotten man in the RB talk, I think he is our best swing pass option as well as running routes down the sideline. We saw it late in the season that when Lamar hit him on those swing passes, he gets up field fast and get 7-8 yards easily. The guy who has the youtube channel "QB school" mentioned, that Ravens kept the runningbacks back in pass protection maybe a tad too long instead of being outlets. If the coaching staff changes up the system to let Hill/Dobbins/Ingram release out earlier, we hopefully should be able to get those 5-10 yard gains from easy completions to Lamars outlet.

Those RB passes is where JKD is going to earn his praise. I could easily see him accumulating 500+ yds as an outlet threat making Lamar that much more dominant in the pocket. He can stay there longer and have two options to beat defenses; the RB outlet or his feet.

[Rein]

3 minutes ago, diamondbull424 said:

Those RB passes is where JKD is going to earn his praise. I could easily see him accumulating 500+ yds as an outlet threat making Lamar that much more dominant in the pocket. He can stay there longer and have two options to beat defenses; the RB outlet or his feet.

Remember the Cam Cameron days of 5-step dropbacks, 4 vertical routes and an automatic check down from Flacco to Rice gaining +7 yards every time. While none of our RBs are as elusive as RR was, this offense has an untapped potential in the easy passes to the RB’s.

[Danand]

2 hours ago, Rein said:

Remember the Cam Cameron days of 5-step dropbacks, 4 vertical routes and an automatic check down from Flacco to Rice gaining +7 yards every time. While none of our RBs are as elusive as RR was, this offense has an untapped potential in the easy passes to the RB’s.

The Tom Brady QB's of the world was praised for "taking what the defense gives Them" and the Flaccos gets crowned "dump off King". 

When I played, we had an option offense where our rb was often used as a wr with a long developing route that took advantage the defense getting stretched out. With Lamars ability to maneuvre the pocket, we can hopefully see those dump offs being an actual weapon again. 

I always envyed the saints and patriots for their screen games and passing to rb's for an easy 5-7 yards to set up easy convertable downs to keep drives Alice. Hopefully we can get the same without lamar having to do it All by himself. 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

On 7/2/2020 at 2:51 PM, Rein said:

Remember the Cam Cameron days of 5-step dropbacks, 4 vertical routes and an automatic check down from Flacco to Rice gaining +7 yards every time. While none of our RBs are as elusive as RR was, this offense has an untapped potential in the easy passes to the RB’s.

4 Vertical routes? You mean 3 vertical routes and one Derrick Mason comeback route?

[Boodgyman5220]

On 7/2/2020 at 8:08 PM, Danand said:

The Tom Brady QB's of the world was praised for "taking what the defense gives Them" and the Flaccos gets crowned "dump off King". 

I think most of that came from him having the strongest arm in the nfl and never using it. We had options open downfield at times and instead he would just dump it for a short gain.

[RavensfanRD]

13 hours ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

4 Vertical routes? You mean 3 vertical routes and one Derrick Mason comeback route?

One of the deadliest weapons of the Flacco Era, lol.

[Danand]

1 hour ago, Boodgyman5220 said:

I think most of that came from him having the strongest arm in the nfl and never using it. We had options open downfield at times and instead he would just dump it for a short gain.

Which is my point. Brady and other QB's make the same decision as well. Its not a coincidence Bradys offense has been death by 1000 paper cuts.

[Boodgyman5220]

1 hour ago, Danand said:

Which is my point. Brady and other QB's make the same decision as well. Its not a coincidence Bradys offense has been death by 1000 paper cuts.

I feel like Joe’s version is more like annoyed by 1000 paper clips

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

2 hours ago, Danand said:

Which is my point. Brady and other QB's make the same decision as well. Its not a coincidence Bradys offense has been death by 1000 paper cuts.

I think it's a fundamental difference in schemes. Our scheme was Air Coryell but Flacco just checked down to Ray Rice a million times. Brady's offense was/is West Coast where guys were schemed open in short yardage situations and then would get YAC after that. You never saw that with Flacco offenses. Hell, it took us until like 2013 or 2014 or something to even start drawing up drag routes, motions, screens, etc.

Furthermore, we never even had valid deep threats until Torrey Smith. I still remember trying to run an Air Coryell offense with Housh, Mason and Boldin lol

[Letsch80]

On 7/2/2020 at 3:55 PM, Danand said:

Lamar has recognized it as a weakness himself, so I won't harp too much on it, but against the Titans it was those outside the numbers throws - especially those that stick to the sideline, that caused him trouble. The ball simply didn't have enough zip on it, and you can't make touch passes on out breaking routes.

I think he will be able to learn as neither arm strength or the technique is an issue as he seem comfortable with those zip throws across the middle. I think it is mostly a timing and technique thing he has to work on.

For all that has been made of Lamars fondness of tight ends and throws over the middle, I think getting more of those outside throws, comeback routes and screens incorporated would give us a much needed dimension.

While Justice Hill is in danger of being the forgotten man in the RB talk, I think he is our best swing pass option as well as running routes down the sideline. We saw it late in the season that when Lamar hit him on those swing passes, he gets up field fast and get 7-8 yards easily. The guy who has the youtube channel "QB school" mentioned, that Ravens kept the runningbacks back in pass protection maybe a tad too long instead of being outlets. If the coaching staff changes up the system to let Hill/Dobbins/Ingram release out earlier, we hopefully should be able to get those 5-10 yard gains from easy completions to Lamars outlet.

I know he has those throws in his bag though. I have seen him fire to the sideline especially on two minute drills, The one drive that sticks out to me was the final drive of the first half week 16 against Cleveland. He made some incredible throws on that drive to the sideline that showed me that he definitely has the arm strength to fire it in there. Consistency is key though!!

[DreamKid]

 

[SalvadorsDeli]

Might have missed it but surprised there hasn't been any talk about Lamar being #1 on the NFL 100.

After the way he ended the year I feel like it should have gone to Mahomes, but it's not like there wasn't a case for Lamar considering he was the unanimous MVP. 

Either way, cool little accolade among many for him to pick up. Really enjoyed the video they put together, just the way guys around the league talk about him is cool to see. 

[berlin calling]

good to see him get respect from his fellow players, however i can absolutely understand how most ppl think mahomes should be tops. me included.