Ravens gave Lamar Jackson far more than cash in newest contract
The Baltimore Ravens are giving Lamar Jackson a historic contract — and extra offensive freedom.
Not that way back, the generally held perception amongst NFL followers was that Lamar Jackson could be leaving the Baltimore Ravens for greener pastures — each in a figurative financial sense and in a extra summary, self-happiness sense. Properly, it was to not be.
Because it turned out, the Ravens and Jackson have been merely enjoying onerous to get. The 2 sides did finally come collectively on a historic contract that provides Jackson an annual common worth of $52 million. That’s famous person cash for a famous person participant.
Now the Ravens are constructing a brand new offense round Jackson below first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken. Up to now, the previous MVP likes what he’s seeing.
Ravens’ new offense will characteristic extra throwing, much less working for Lamar Jackson
“Much less working and extra throwing,” is how Jackson described the new offense to Jamison Hensley of ESPN. Baltimore is evidently going away from Jackson’s legs to concentrate on the brand new receiving corps, that includes newcomers Odell Beckham Jr. and Zay Flowers.
Jackson positively favors the change:
“Operating can solely take you to date. And I really feel like with this new period of groups and offenses within the league, I really feel like we’d like that. Coach Todd Monken, what I’m seeing in his offense to date, is trying great.”
The Ravens are additionally giving Jackson extra freedom to audible and adapt on the line of scrimmage. Jackson mentioned Monken has given him and his teammates the “free will” to make adjustments based mostly on what they see out on the sphere.
It’s clear the Ravens are investing totally in Jackson’s soccer thoughts and ludicrous expertise. That’s the transfer while you spend $260 million to retain a participant’s providers — you go all in. Jackson already has one MVP below his belt and two Professional Bowl appearances. Final season was Jackson’s weakest since changing into the full-time starter in 2019, however he nonetheless accounted for 20 whole touchdowns and threw for nicely over 2,000 yards and ran for nearly 800 extra. Jackson has completed quite a bit individually. The following step is main Baltimore to the Tremendous Bowl.
The general public opinion on Jackson has cooled considerably since his MVP season in 2019, but it surely’s clear Baltimore nonetheless has numerous religion in him. Jackson has an absolute cannon, able to launching the ball 60 years down discipline with easy precision. He additionally stays fairly presumably probably the most electrical runner in soccer. The Ravens are favoring the go extra below Todd Monken, however we should always nonetheless count on a good quantity of Jackson improvisations and scrambles subsequent season. It’s what makes him particular.
