One of the biggest arguments Lamar Jackson supporters use to put him at the top end of quarterback rankings is how much Jackson is relied upon. Patrick Mahomes has Andy Reid’s fantastic playbook and play-calling. Lots of other quarterbacks have better offensive weapons. Jackson has always been the focal point of his offense; more than any quarterback in the NFL, Jackson is asked to do more with less every week he plays. And he does.
Because of Jackson’s athleticism, special and underrated arm talent, and unique running ability, Jackson has been the entire Ravens offense since his first year starting in 2019. The run game is built around him and his top target has consistently been a tight end with no dominant outside wide receivers.
Many hoped change would start when the Ravens brought in new offensive coordinator Todd Monken from Georgia, who led with a dominant offense to win back-to-back NCAA championships, and drafted wide receiver Zay Flowers and signed Odell Beckham Jr. A lot did seem to change. Flowers had the best rookie receiver year in franchise history, Beckham was a steady vet presence despite his lack of stats and the Ravens offense simply looked different than the previous years with offensive coordinator Greg Roman.
But even then, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Monken did an interview with the podcast “Coaches and the Mouth” before the NFL Combine released on May 3. He was asked about what goes into game planning once you get to the red zone. Monken talked about how the Ravens struggled early and relied on Jackson too much in that area.
… when you’ve got the athletic in the red zone, it gives you an extra tool. You don’t have to go wild cat, you’ve got the wild cat quarterback, that adds an extra element. That’s [only] a part, we were using that way too much early in the year. We went to London and played the Titans there and we kicked a [ton] of field goals, like we got down [in the red zone], we use Lamar too much.
This is had been a common theme during Jackson’s time in the NFL. Each year since Jackson took over as the starter in 2019, Jackson has been the leading rusher for the Ravens, even in 2021 and 2022 when he missed games due to injury. Monken goes on to describe head coach John Harbaugh’s feelings on the matter.
… and coach [Harbaugh] is like ‘guys like that isn’t good enough, that can’t be us, we just rely on Lamar, we gotta be better than that’ and we were doing some of these other things well.
Harbaugh has never been shy on saying the Ravens aren’t worried about Jackson’s running. Last year he did say while certain run plays may not be called as often, Jackson’s run ability would still be a big part of what the Ravens do offensively and would remain in the playbook. So, to hear that he possibly got a fired up about not relying so much on Jackson behind closed doors after a big win in London is a new perspective and good to hear.
Monken continues, talking about what the next steps were after that conversation.
What’s our job? Our job is to fix it. That’s what every assistant coach is to do if the head coach says something, you fight like hell to fix it. If you’re a position coach, you fight like hell to fix it. So what we became…how are we more creative? Do we need to go fast, do we need to go speed break, do we need to go unbalanced? How do we get seam throws, what is Lamar good at, right? What are we doing when it comes to run-pass ratio, what are the best teams doing? What is that that we needed to do to get a hell of a lot better not rely on Lamar solely? And from then on, we ended up being in the top five in scoring touchdowns in the Red Zone after that week.
It’s great to hear the questions that were asked and the effort put in after the coaching staff wasn’t happy with the process despite the results of a win.
Going into the 2024 season, Ravens fans can expect more. Monken and Jackson are going into year two together as offensive coordinator and Jackson should have a massive role in building the offense this year. Flowers is going into year two of his young career. Everybody in the Ravens brass expects a massive leap out of wide receiver Rashod Bateman, who just finished his first healthy season in 2023 and should build going into another. Not to mention, for the first time in his career, there might be a bigger running threat than Jackson on the team with the addition of running back Derrick Henry.