The Baltimore Ravens are currently 8-5 on the season after their Week 13 loss against the Philadelphia Eagles. Lamar Jackson and company look the part of a potential Super Bowl contender, but there are concerns about their consistency.
Jackson has been putting together another MVP-caliber season. In fact, he’s one of the top two front-runners to end up winning the award.
Despite how good he has been playing, one NFL analyst has urged Jackson to make a major change.
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis has suggested that Jackson should look to run more. He doesn’t think more designed runs for Jackson should be called, but he wants to see Jackson run more when the pass isn’t there, especially late in close games.
“There are many times when the game is tight and the game is a big game that Lamar seems to scramble around, to hang in the pocket, hang behind the line of scrimmage for far too long before doing one of three things: taking a sack; choosing to scramble, which often times does not result in as much upside as it otherwise would have if he took an open run lane a lot earlier; or trying to fire the football when he’s outside the pocket, he’s moving, and he doesn’t have his feet set, and so it’s far less likely to be an accurate completion. … Sometimes these guys are wide open, as we saw with Isaiah Likely [against the Eagles],” Sharp said.
He believes that Jackson utilizing his legs even more would give the Ravens a better chance to win a championship.
“What you need to do is win playoff games, win a Super Bowl,” Sharp said. “And the way that you’re going to do that is by taking advantage of your God-given ability that most any other quarterback doesn’t have. He’s more evasive, elusive, and faster than Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts. He needs to take advantage.”
So far this season, Jackson has completed 67 percent of his pass attempts for 3,290 yards, 29 touchdowns, and just three interceptions. He has also picked up 678 yards and three scores on the ground.
Those numbers show just how good and dominant the Baltimore quarterback has been.
One issue does come from a quarterback running the football more often. Running quarterbacks are often injured at a much higher rate. The Ravens can’t afford for Jackson to get hurt.
If he can increase his runs in a safe way, it likely would help Baltimore. He’s one of the most electrifying playmakers in football and seeing him utilize that playmaking ability more could be a huge boost for the Ravens’ offense.
