Lamar Jackson

[Ellicottraven]

I have to really disagree with the first part of this. It's actually far more important to be accurate when you don't throw often. For an offense like the Ravens had this season one or two miss passes can utterly destroy a drive's momentum. And even for a ball control offense, you have to be able to be clutch on 3rd downs that require throwing.

Then you misunderstand what I'm trying to say. Regardless of importance, it is difficult for a first year QB to come in and take over mid season and be expected to be so accurate. He doesn't throw dink and dunk passes like Flacco to be accurate either. Most of his throws are intermediate kind of throws. Now if Lamar had a full off season with this offense centered around him and had the reps in practice I'm pretty sure he would be way better than his current rate.

 

[flynismo]

The 3 seasons you refer to with his highest percentage completion rates? They were the reasons where he was dinking and dunking the ball with his first read. I think to look at completion percentage you'll also have to look at yards per attempt. I can almost bet you that those 3 yrs Flacco's may have been the lowest of his career. I don't know what Lamar's is but I'm willing to wager that it is surely more than what Flacco had with great completion rates....

Those things are more a reflection of the OC than anything. I'll never understand why this genius tried to turn Flacco into a checkdown queen, but has plays designed where Lamar is throwing deep to tight ends every other pass attempt while John Brown is running curls.

People forget that the knock on Stafford was his "accuracy" due to his low completion % in college, when in reality not a scout on earth was concerned about it. Statistics tell any story you want it to.

 

[rossihunter2]

The 3 seasons you refer to with his highest percentage completion rates? They were the reasons where he was dinking and dunking the ball with his first read. I think to look at completion percentage you'll also have to look at yards per attempt. I can almost bet you that those 3 yrs Flacco's may have been the lowest of his career. I don't know what Lamar's is but I'm willing to wager that it is surely more than what Flacco had with great completion rates....

if you read a couple of posts down beyond the one you quoted i have all the stats on YPA lol

 

[Edgar]

I'm not sure we "fix" Lamar's accuracy issue altogether. It's likely to me that we see a percentage of muffed easy throws going forward. Although it isn't ideal, his errant throws are mitigated somewhat by his extreme athleticism. He is good for two or three conversions per game on third down we would not otherwise have.

The area I expect him to improve is in making reads pre and post snap, seeing the field and learning to manipulate a coverage. I'd like him to grow more comfortable in making a read and hitting it. He hesitates and holds the ball at times. It wouldn't surprise me even a little to see a leap in all facets next year.
You know he's going to work. You know he's going to study. I do expect him to improve his consistently hitting comebacks and outs...I've seen improvement in this area already.

I'm really excited for this off season and to see how Lamar develops. I'm pretty sure we'll hear about his getting receivers together in the off season and about how much time he invests in bettering himself.

 

[RavensMania]

I'm not sure we "fix" Lamar's accuracy issue altogether. It's likely to me that we see a percentage of muffed easy throws going forward. Although it isn't ideal, his errant throws are mitigated somewhat by his extreme athleticism. He is good for two or three conversions per game on third down we would not otherwise have.

The area I expect him to improve is in making reads pre and post snap, seeing the field and learning to manipulate a coverage. I'd like him to grow more comfortable in making a read and hitting it. He hesitates and holds the ball at times. It wouldn't surprise me even a little to see a leap in all facets next year.
You know he's going to work. You know he's going to study. I do expect him to improve his consistently hitting comebacks and outs...I've seen improvement in this area already.

I'm really excited for this off season and to see how Lamar develops. I'm pretty sure we'll hear about his getting receivers together in the off season and about how much time he invests in bettering himself.

Definitely agree, we will still see some easy misses as it's not going to be all fixed, but I expect his consistency to get much better and it's going to be harder for defenses to play us like the Chargers played us on a consistent bases as well.

 

[RavensMania]

Lets also look at this in perspective. Sure it's not all about Lamar, but Lamar had a big part of this since he took over.

We lost two games since he started and both of those teams were the best teams in the AFC and one of those teams we also beat. We were 6-2 in his first eight games. How many rookie quarterbacks can say that. Sure we had the top defense in the league, but he was a big reason why our defense was so good during that span as well.

Time to get excited for our future Ravens fans!

 

[Oldfaithful]

It is encouraging to see Lamar has progressed a lot since college....

But he has a long way to go. He has a couple of those money throws a game which is encouraging but this offseason is a turning point.

Personally I think we missed out. Harbaugh should be gone and we should’ve gone for Arinas.... A proven commodity.

We cannot go into the next offseason running this same gimmick offense. The expiration date has come. Marty won’t be gone, but we have to open the playbook up. Lamar had promise.... let’s see if he can take the keys.

 

[RaineV1]

It is encouraging to see Lamar has progressed a lot since college....

But he has a long way to go. He has a couple of those money throws a game which is encouraging but this offseason is a turning point.

Personally I think we missed out. Harbaugh should be gone and we should’ve gone for Arinas.... A proven commodity.

We cannot go into the next offseason running this same gimmick offense. The expiration date has come. Marty won’t be gone, but we have to open the playbook up. Lamar had promise.... let’s see if he can take the keys.

This almost feels like the early Flacco years. "We have a young guy that has shown the ability to lead this team, and seems to rise up when we open the play book and speed things up... So let's do the opposite of that."

 

[Oldfaithful]

This almost feels like the early Flacco years. "We have a young guy that has shown the ability to lead this team, and seems to rise up when we open the play book and speed things up... So let's do the opposite of that."

Oh gee. It’s like history repeats itself if you never learn from it.

 

[flynismo]

This almost feels like the early Flacco years. "We have a young guy that has shown the ability to lead this team, and seems to rise up when we open the play book and speed things up... So let's do the opposite of that."

You're right. I was clamoring all week prior to our first game against LAC for the coaches to open up the playbook and unleash Lamar. But our coaches are a bunch of rubes. Most of the people on the boards here disagreed with me on that too, but maybe now they see the light and what I was getting at.
@Lost_In_Translation says it best when he calls this offense a gimmick. That's exactly what it is, just like the wildcat a few years ago.

 

[flynismo]

It is encouraging to see Lamar has progressed a lot since college....

But he has a long way to go. He has a couple of those money throws a game which is encouraging but this offseason is a turning point.

Personally I think we missed out. Harbaugh should be gone and we should’ve gone for Arinas.... A proven commodity.

We cannot go into the next offseason running this same gimmick offense. The expiration date has come. Marty won’t be gone, but we have to open the playbook up. Lamar had promise.... let’s see if he can take the keys.

Just like RaineV1 said above...we've heard this song and dance before. It was YEARS before they loosened the leash on Flacco, and Flacco was 100x better as a pure thrower than Lamar at that stage. These coaches are going to ruin this kid.

 

[redrum52]

Right. Very similar to Lamar and his groupies, as I said. It's very telling that any criticism of Lamar is typically met with comparisons to Flacco's perceived issues, or absurd assumptions like "he'll improve as a passer" or "we can coach that out of him" or "we can teach him how to throw accurately".
Flacco is what he is, and that is a highly accomplished NFL QB that possesses one of the best (the best?) post season record of any QB playing today. A SB MVP. Now he is getting up there in age and injuries and is part of our history, not our present or future.
Lamar is a raw, unrefined rookie who has yet to accomplish a thing, and faces an uphill battle now that LAC has shown how to stop him.

People need to stop comparing the two. Lamar will lose every time, and that isn't fair to him.

So Flacco should never be compared to Eli? He's a highly accomplished 2X SB MVP. I'll never get your infatuation of Flacco, but it is what it is. You are putting the Flacco up on a pedestal...

And your check down argument doesn't float. The offense changed, yes, but guys were getting open and Flacco was flat out missing them.

This year, same weapons, Lamar's YPA was higher as well.

If anything, we should be wondering why we'd go from one QB with obvious accuracy issues to another, though Lamar's physical talents have helped ease him into the league. The good news is he didn't have many weapons at Louisville, so he should be right at home here. We better bring in a mind who wants him to excel as a passer and not rely on a similar offense cause if not, these guys will ruin him.

 

[Tru11]

Right. Very similar to Lamar and his groupies, as I said. It's very telling that any criticism of Lamar is typically met with comparisons to Flacco's perceived issues, or absurd assumptions like "he'll improve as a passer" or "we can coach that out of him" or "we can teach him how to throw accurately".
Flacco is what he is, and that is a highly accomplished NFL QB that possesses one of the best (the best?) post season record of any QB playing today. A SB MVP. Now he is getting up there in age and injuries and is part of our history, not our present or future.
Lamar is a raw, unrefined rookie who has yet to accomplish a thing, and faces an uphill battle now that LAC has shown how to stop him.

People need to stop comparing the two. Lamar will lose every time, and that isn't fair to him.

Being the youngest QB in ravens and nfl history to start a play off game is quite an accomplishment.

He also performed better in the play offs compared to rookie flacco.

He is also the youngest QB to win the division as a starter with the ravens perhaps even in NFL history.

 

[RavensMania]

It is encouraging to see Lamar has progressed a lot since college....

But he has a long way to go. He has a couple of those money throws a game which is encouraging but this offseason is a turning point.

Personally I think we missed out. Harbaugh should be gone and we should’ve gone for Arinas.... A proven commodity.

We cannot go into the next offseason running this same gimmick offense. The expiration date has come. Marty won’t be gone, but we have to open the playbook up. Lamar had promise.... let’s see if he can take the keys.

I don’t want a 60 year old coach that is only going to be around for a few years.

 

[RavensMania]

You're right. I was clamoring all week prior to our first game against LAC for the coaches to open up the playbook and unleash Lamar. But our coaches are a bunch of rubes. Most of the people on the boards here disagreed with me on that too, but maybe now they see the light and what I was getting at.
@Lost_In_Translation says it best when he calls this offense a gimmick. That's exactly what it is, just like the wildcat a few years ago.

Everyone new this offense couldn’t sustain itself, but quite frankly if we hasn’t played a team twice it would have been fine throughout the playoffs. Although I’m not sure KC could have stopped it if we played them again.

 

[arnie_uk]

Except our coaching staff

Everyone new this offense couldn’t sustain itself

 

[ravenslord]

I don’t understand where you get this notion that accuracy can’t be taught.

It can be. Anyone who has played sports has seen a pitcher get more accurate, a basketball player improve his 3 point shooting and a QB
get more accurate on his throws.

 

[Tru11]

It can be. Anyone who has played sports has seen a pitcher get more accurate, a basketball player improve his 3 point shooting and a QB
get more accurate on his throws.

yup mechanics/footwork for instance.
heck reading defense can improve accuracy if you can learn how to throw with anticipation and so on...

 

[JoeyFlex5]

This almost feels like the early Flacco years. "We have a young guy that has shown the ability to lead this team, and seems to rise up when we open the play book and speed things up... So let's do the opposite of that."

We need to wait until game 13, then Fire marty, repeat 2012.

 

[RL52TheGreatest]

yup mechanics/footwork for instance.
heck reading defense can improve accuracy if you can learn how to throw with anticipation and so on...

Yeah, quite a few of Lamar's poor throws are the result of bad footwork. I think he can continue to work on fixing that in the off-season.