A 3-time Professional Bowler and two-time NFL MVP, it doesn’t seem to be there’s a lot that Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson wants to enhance about his recreation.
Because the 27-year-old signal-caller heads into his second 12 months in offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system, although, there’s one factor the Ravens wish to see Jackson do extra of in 2024: name audibles.
In accordance with ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, the Ravens have given Jackson the liberty this offseason to change something pre-snap together with play calls, blocking schemes and his cadence.
Baltimore’s 17-10 loss to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs within the AFC Championship recreation reportedly was the ultimate straw. In that recreation, the Chiefs introduced strain on Jackson, disguised their play calls and created sufficient confusion to stagnate the Ravens’ high-octane offense.
Jackson was pressured on 35% of his dropbacks in that contest, with Kansas Metropolis limiting him to utilizing play-action simply 26% of the time and screens 6.5% of the time, per Professional Soccer Focus. He was sacked 4 instances, hit seven instances, compelled to scramble 5 instances and had three turnover-worthy performs.
The Ravens imagine had Jackson been empowered to change issues up extra on the line of scrimmage, he might have chosen performs that had a better success price in opposition to what the Chiefs protection was displaying him.
“From us watching movie and stepping into video games, groups altering issues up on us, we simply wish to add additional layers to all of our calls,” Jackson mentioned of the advantages of utilizing extra audibles throughout minicamp final week.
Of the 1,035 offensive performs the Ravens ran final season, just one time did they draw the protection offside. The coaches imagine they’ll get that quantity up larger by having Jackson use his voice extra, incorporate extra exhausting counts and swap up his cadence.
“It has been a software previously, and we’re simply going to proceed to take it to the subsequent degree,” quarterbacks coach Tee Martin informed reporters. “Lamar is excellent at it, whether or not we’re going non-verbal on the highway or whether or not we’re going verbal at dwelling. We’ve got loads of completely different ones that provides us a bonus so that individuals do not know once we’re snapping the ball and slowing them down slightly bit.”
