A 3-time Professional Bowler and two-time NFL MVP, it doesn’t look like there’s a lot that Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson wants to enhance about his sport.
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 response to 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 sport reportedly was the ultimate straw. In that sport, the Chiefs introduced stress 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 modify issues up extra on the line of scrimmage, he might have chosen performs that had the next success fee towards what the Chiefs protection was exhibiting him.
“From us watching movie and moving 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 increased by having Jackson use his voice extra, incorporate extra onerous counts and change up his cadence.
“It has been a device prior to now, and we’re simply going to proceed to take it to the following stage,” quarterbacks coach Tee Martin instructed reporters. “Lamar is excellent at it, whether or not we’re going non-verbal on the street or whether or not we’re going verbal at house. We’ve got plenty of completely different ones that provides us a bonus so that folks do not know after we’re snapping the ball and slowing them down a bit bit.”
