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Lamar Jackson QB1


DreamKid

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I think the three areas of emphasis for Lamar over this season, in order should be:
1. Pre Snap Reads- Lamar needs to work with potentially more than just Harris. Setting up protections, having a blitz plan, reading defensive pre-snap tells- even if they’re in ‘organized chaos’ up at the line. If his Offensive Coordinator is going to continue to be trash, than he needs to develop his cerebral qualities so that he doesn’t need to rely on Roman to succeed on a play to play basis. Year 4 he needs to have an elite command of the offense, can communicate with his receivers when to run hot routes, etc... not that Roman typically gives Lamar enough time at the LOS on a consistent basis, but when he does have the time, I want to see him looking to attack defensive flaws.

For instance the loss to the Titans earlier in the season. Who cares what playcall Roman put in, if Dez Bryant and the rest of our receivers were going to consistently be given 10-12 yard cushions, screw the run game. Audible EVERY time until the defense shifts their defense, make them pay for it. His in-phase processing may not ever be his strength as a QB, but it also wasn’t a strength for Peyton Manning, but he was so good in pre-snap understanding, that his in-phase flaw was typically of little consequence. Lamar has enough athleticism that if he can properly read how the defense is planning to attack on a given play based on their tells, then he can put himself in the best position, regardless of line play, to execute the play to it’s fullest potential- and put himself into harms way, only when he NEEDS to do so.

2. Deep ball accuracy- It took over half a season, but Roman finally figured that Hollywood isn’t just DeSean Jackson, he’s someone you want to give an opportunity to catch some short passes off motion to use his YAC ability to pick up easy yards and keep him and Lamar in a groove. HOWEVER that doesn’t change the fact that Hollywood and especially Boykin are both going to be more effective as deep ball targets. I know the wind was particularly challenging for Lamar because he lacks the arm talent, but those passes to Snead on the deep posts were there. Granted you need to trust in your OL to deliver to you that time, but they were there nonetheless, could’ve at least taken the shots and lived with the consequences.

3. Pocket feet- They’re far too intense and it becomes almost a self fulfilling prophecy where his feet look nervous and panicked and in turn he will become nervous and panicked and deliver throws that have all the symptoms of being nervous and/or panicked. Just calm his feet.
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I’ve often thought Lamar’s best style as a QB should be to resemble, as much as he can, a young Drew Brees. While Brees never had a particularly explosive arm, he had enough to get the job done. He also really made us of the short/intermediate passing attack. Now his accuracy is one of the best the league has ever seen, but Lamar’s legs should attribute to him larger passing lanes to make up some of the difference.

If I’m him, I’d reach out to Drew Brees or even Kurt Warner to get with them on what they’re seeing from a defense pre-snap and how they’re looking to exploit it. Why those two? Well Warner seems to have an affinity towards Lamar, so why not take advantage of that resource. And Brees suffered some damage to his reputation due to some of the comments that he’s made, him getting with Lamar Jackson and Lamar pimping his efforts in helping to improve his pre-snap capabilities would go a long way to improving Brees’ reputation points, particularly considering Lamar’s clout within the same communities that Brees has lost his reputation within. I mean, Mike Jones who hasn’t been relevant in a decade became relevant again, just because of one Lamar Jackson interview. Both have something to gain from a partnership IMO. And Lamar has Ingram who could help to bridge the gap, no way I wouldn’t be utilizing Brees as a resource if he’s open to it.

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Saying all that however, I think the organization would be smart to start working on an extension for Lamar Jackson this offseason after things settle down. You don’t want to give him another offseason to work and put up MVP type numbers on the other side and be negotiating with him then.

As it stands, after activating his 5th year option, that should pay roughly $28-$30m IIRC under the new CBA, there’s potentially a chance that they could sign him to an extension closer to that $30-35m range.

The last thing we’d want is for Josh Allen to sign a $42m contract and Lamar has an MVP type season and we’re on the hook having to pay him that kind of money. Convincing (autocorrect turned it to conning WTF) him that since he doesn’t have an agent, a team friendly $35m deal would best benefit the team’s chances of winning a SB and then keep it moving.

I think there’s enough hate following the way this season ended and considering Lamar’s personality in general, I think that regardless of getting paid, I’d feel good about his ability to improve as a QB moving forward. Sign him through 2026 and then if things look good towards the end of that we can extend him for more.

I’ve seen enough from Lamar to know that even when he plays bad, he’s going to give the team a chance to compete year in and year out. Any QB in the league can get hurt or regress, all the GOATs have done so. Lamar might not be a finished product that we can be completely sure of... but if he were, he’d be worth $50m, I’d rather be right early, than wrong late in this instance.

Edited by diamondbull424
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This was a tough game to watch, because I love to watch both teams and both Lamar and Josh have done things in the league to make doubters eat crow, myself included.

When Lamar went down, I felt for him right away. It turned out to be a concussion but he landed on his tailbone first which whipped his head into the ground and I have landed like that before. I couldn't breathe for a good 50 seconds afterwards and it was probably the most intense panic that I have ever felt. I say that as someone who's been shot at and has had a pistol pointed at the back of my head.

Lamar’s a baller. Ignore the haters.

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10 hours ago, DreamKid said:

FWIW

 

Hopefully Lamar doesn’t let his loyalty to his QB coach get in the way of the opportunity to improve his craft by learning from multiple guys. Palmer has really built quite the following and I see no reason Lamar should put in some work with him, especially when it comes to the film room aspect. Lamar’s fundamentals have indeed improved since his rookie season, but improving the cerebral qualities of the game is where he needs to make his next big progression. If he can do that and we can give him some help, he could put up a season that eclipses his MVP season.

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7 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

Hopefully Lamar doesn’t let his loyalty to his QB coach get in the way of the opportunity to improve his craft by learning from multiple guys. Palmer has really built quite the following and I see no reason Lamar should put in some work with him, especially when it comes to the film room aspect. Lamar’s fundamentals have indeed improved since his rookie season, but improving the cerebral qualities of the game is where he needs to make his next big progression. If he can do that and we can give him some help, he could put up a season that eclipses his MVP season.

Fortunately I don't think we ever have to worry about anything like that with a guy like Lamar. Seems to have a one-track mind when it comes to getting better at every opportunity - plus he's such a genuinely nice kid, I can't see him turning something like that down just because he works with another QB coach sometimes

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1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

Fortunately I don't think we ever have to worry about anything like that with a guy like Lamar. Seems to have a one-track mind when it comes to getting better at every opportunity - plus he's such a genuinely nice kid, I can't see him turning something like that down just because he works with another QB coach sometimes

That’s my hope and expectation. Though considering where he’s from and how he got to where he is, sometimes you just never know with these athletes.

But yeah, he definitely seems like he’s just in love with the game and that he’d be willing to workout with Palmer just because it gives him another opportunity to play football.

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On 1/20/2021 at 6:33 PM, diamondbull424 said:

I think the three areas of emphasis for Lamar over this season, in order should be:
1. Pre Snap Reads- Lamar needs to work with potentially more than just Harris. Setting up protections, having a blitz plan, reading defensive pre-snap tells- even if they’re in ‘organized chaos’ up at the line. If his Offensive Coordinator is going to continue to be trash, than he needs to develop his cerebral qualities so that he doesn’t need to rely on Roman to succeed on a play to play basis. Year 4 he needs to have an elite command of the offense, can communicate with his receivers when to run hot routes, etc... not that Roman typically gives Lamar enough time at the LOS on a consistent basis, but when he does have the time, I want to see him looking to attack defensive flaws.

For instance the loss to the Titans earlier in the season. Who cares what playcall Roman put in, if Dez Bryant and the rest of our receivers were going to consistently be given 10-12 yard cushions, screw the run game. Audible EVERY time until the defense shifts their defense, make them pay for it. His in-phase processing may not ever be his strength as a QB, but it also wasn’t a strength for Peyton Manning, but he was so good in pre-snap understanding, that his in-phase flaw was typically of little consequence. Lamar has enough athleticism that if he can properly read how the defense is planning to attack on a given play based on their tells, then he can put himself in the best position, regardless of line play, to execute the play to it’s fullest potential- and put himself into harms way, only when he NEEDS to do so.
 

3. Pocket feet- They’re far too intense and it becomes almost a self fulfilling prophecy where his feet look nervous and panicked and in turn he will become nervous and panicked and deliver throws that have all the symptoms of being nervous and/or panicked. Just calm his feet.

I think these are both really good points, and taken together I think they just get at where Lamar needs to focus a lot of energy this offseason, which is improving how to play against pressure. I've been watching through some of the film breakdowns of the Titans and Bills playoff games and it sticks out like a sore thumb how rattled Lamar got by the pressure, particularly against BUF.

There were a number of plays like the one highlighted in this Edgar Allen video where he just let the pressure influence him too easily into bad and missed throws. It seemed like there was a just a complete breakdown in him trusting the line - which was understandable given how badly they were playing - to the point where if the defense was showing blitz he was practically scrambling from the moment the ball was snapped because he didn't trust the blocking to hold up, which messed with the timing and led to a lot of back foot/off balance difficult throws that could have been easier.

Better blocking up front will certainly help, but it's also something Lamar needs to get better at on his end in terms of recognizing where pressure is going to come from and using that against the defense. It's also something Roman needs to scheme better against - interior pressure in particular seems to blow up our offense way too easily because the built-in 'checkdown' on a lot of our passing plays isn't actually a pass but is instead Lamar scrambling, and pressure from the right place can take that away or at least turn it into a situation where Lamar has to make a superhuman play just to avoid a loss of yards. 

Edited by SalvadorsDeli
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I feel like this past season was our last of truly “unpolished young Lamar” and next year he continues his growth and takes some really nice leaps in smoothing out the edges in his game. It will be fun as it usually is but I think year 5 we see the real deal when we enter “Seasoned veteran”/ “big money man” Lamar and we get a nice 5-6 year window of very high level football out of our QB. If we get an offensive line upgrade and Lamar keeps avoiding bad hits the future is so so bright.

 

 

Edited by ThatJaxxenGuy
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One thing that has been a little interesting to watch this offseason is how good QB's on bad teams tend to be glamorized. Seeing a lot with both Watson and Stafford as of late where they're celebrated for putting up gaudy bulk stats and those stats are meant to be MORE impressive because of the teams they play for rather than there being any consideration of how playing for a bad team might actually juice some of those stats - especially considering in both of their cases they've also had the luxury of playing with + receivers throughout their careers. 

With Watson in particular it seems like he's gotten a lot more credit this year for putting up volume stats in a season where he was basically playing an entire season's worth of low-stakes garbage time against lots of soft/prevent coverage compared to previous years where he was leading better Texans teams into the playoffs and putting up slightly less impressive stats in games that actually mattered. That's not meant to take too much away from him. If we're doing a comparison even with the context around his performances I do still think Deshaun outplayed Lamar this past season - but the gap isn't really as large as people pretend. 

It's funny in the context of Lamar because I think there's a decent chance that if he just played for a crappy team that he'd be more widely respected without even being a dramatically different player. Because of the quality of our defense and the quality of Lamar himself there haven't been that many games where we've gotten down multiple scores and played pure 'garbage time'/catch up football, but in the instances where we have we've seen Lamar basically put up video game stats:

2019 vs. KC: 313 total yards (267 passing + 46 rushing), 1 TD
2019 vs. CLE: 313 total yards (247 passing + 66 rushing), 3 TD's
2019 vs. TEN: 508 total yards (365 passing + 143 rushing), 1 TD
2020 vs. NWE: 304 total yards (249 passing + 55 passing), 2 TD's

Even in the Buffalo playoff game, had he not gotten injured, if we're looking at what Hundley did after he came in, he probably ends up with around 300 total yards and a TD in a losing cause if he doesn't get concussed.

Obviously it doesn't always happen like that - the KC game this year is a good example - and in some of these games turnovers were a real issue for him - but it does look like if Lamar played for a crappy team where he was always playing from behind his volume stats would just end up looking absurd, probably pushing for 5000 total yards of offense - 3700-4000 passing yards and 1000 yards rushing w/ 30-40 TD's, all the while being the same or even worse player than he is now, but probably getting more respect for valiantly losing as opposed to winning the way he wins now. 

 

 

Edited by SalvadorsDeli
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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice video capturing a good deal of Lamar's throws from the pocket this year from an All-22 angle. Lot of these especially past the first couple of minutes are fairly routine plays but interesting to watch nonetheless.

Pretty noticeable that the vast majority of the quick-hitter/effective timing plays in the video are routes over the middle - the biggest area for improvement remains making this passing game more effective outside the numbers, which needs to happen both through Lamar showing more improvement/growth on his end as well as hopefully by replacing Boykin and giving him a 2nd target on the outside he can rely on beyond Hollywood.

Another takeaway for me watching this is that we should be looking to use Hollywood more on speed outs - that route is open for the taking a lot of the time and is basically just free yards whenever teams don't press Hollywood at the line. It also a good setup play for deep hits but other than the Tennessee playoff game it really didn't seem like something we worked in much. 

Edited by SalvadorsDeli
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  • 1 month later...

Look guys, I found a dumb MFer 👍

Watch out though, cause he's tough and old school. Look at him working at a typewriter while smoking a cigar. He's a no nonsense guy. *cringe*  10K says his office's bathroom stalls look like swiss cheese. 🤡💩

 

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  • 1 month later...

I do find it interesting that Trey Lance hasn't been subjected to quite the same scrutiny Lamar was. Seems like every other QB with + athleticism and question marks surrounding their ability to mature as a passer that has entered the league since Lamar... has really been met with kid gloves. 

Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen have to look at some of these QB prospects and think "I died on the cross for you". MFs were proudly going on TV and proclaiming that Josh & Lamar straight up couldn't play in this league and then the same people are calling Kyle Shanahan a genius for giving up 3 1st Round Picks to secure Trey Lance.

 

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