This will surely ruffle feathers from certain members, but I don't think Joe was worth building around the way Lamar is.
With Joe, no matter who the Ravens rotated, he more or less produced the same and gave the same results week in and week out. He'd have the rare January Joe performance in the regular season, but he was mostly just good, but not transcendent.
Now Lamar- I truly do think he's worth building around. I think he's shown to be a good passer, and has made significant strides, and is obviously an elite runner. Lamar has already shown he can produce incredible results with a little build around (2019).
I'd like to see the Ravens trim the defensive fat and do more for Lamar if the defense is gonna keep being ass (and to be clear, they've been downright terrible for 2021 to now.)
Problem is... the better QB, the less need for "elite" weapons. Joe needed weapons because Joe wasn't as good of a QB as Lamar.
That's why you won't see me out here crying about how Lamar never has a #1 receiver or whatever. Nobody has ever come up with a compelling argument that adding a #1 WR to any of our previous teams meant we would have won the SB. I don't think anybody has come close to that argument in fact.
And you see this in other franchises. The Packers don't invest in high end weapons for Rodgers. They drafted Adams in the second round, paid him, and then rotated in a bunch of guys, none of which were spectacular. That's been their strategy for the last 5+ years.
The Chiefs don't invest in high end weapons for Mahomes. They draft Hill, pay him and Kelce (comparable to what the Ravens have done), and then rotate in a bunch of guys that aren't special. And now Hill's not there.
I never really understood this mentality that like the elite QB needs elite weapons. I don't see a correlation to that with SB wins at all. I see a correlation to that with tremendous individual production, MVP awards, and wonderful fantasy stats, but I don't see that translating into Lombardi's.
So I guess it just comes down to what individual fans value.
Plus, most of what we're talking about is in the past. Lamar's going to cost $100M over the next two years, which means regardless of cap increases in the short term, there ain't much affordability to help him in terms of "proven players". Enhancements to the offense will mostly, if not entirely, come from the draft. And there's a contingent of folks here and everywhere else who seem to have a fear of draft picks for some reason.
My guess... a lot of recency bias towards the reigning SB champs, who shuffle through a lot of veterans. People thinking that's the new norm. Which, of course, it's not.