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 sport.
Because the 27-year-old signal-caller heads into his second yr in offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system, although, there’s one factor the Ravens want to see Jackson do extra of in 2024: name audibles.
Based on 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 occasions, hit seven occasions, compelled to scramble 5 occasions and had three turnover-worthy performs.
The Ravens consider had Jackson been empowered to change issues up extra on the line of scrimmage, he may have chosen performs that had the next success price towards what the Chiefs protection was displaying him.
“From us watching movie and moving into video games, groups altering issues up on us, we simply need to add further layers to all of our calls,” Jackson stated 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 consider they’ll get that quantity up greater by having Jackson use his voice extra, incorporate extra arduous counts and change up his cadence.
“It has been a device previously, and we’re simply going to proceed to take it to the following stage,” 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 now have a number 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.”
