Many are aware of the incredible running ability Lamar Jackson has provided the Baltimore Ravens. His passing ability has seemingly continued to be underappreciated, particularly from inside the pocket.
Not only did Jackson manage to total the most passing overall touchdowns (36) last season, many of those were the result of pocket passes. In fact, he led the NFL in touchdown passes in that area with 25, per Pro Football Focus.
As Jackson continues to progress as a passer, the Ravens will be able to feature that part of his skill-set more while allowing QB runs to come more naturally within the flow of the game. That will make for an even more layered offensive attack that will give defensive coordinators nightmares.
Cutting down on running plays and becoming more of a pocket passer seems to align with Jacksonās vision. He doesnāt anticipate running the ball a lot in the future considering the receiving threats the Ravens have to work with in their offense.
āI doubt if Iām going to be carrying the ball a lot going on in the future,ā Jackson said, via the teamās official website. āWeāve got dynamic running backs. Weāre going to have even more receivers. Weāve got Hollywood, Mark Andrews, Nick (Boyle), Willie Snead, Miles (Boykin). Weāre going to be pretty good. I donāt think Iāll be running a lot.ā
Relying on more on the passing game makes sense for the Ravens when considering only 45.9% of their plays ended in a pass last season. That was the lowest frequency of any team in the league, which makes it even crazier to think Jackson had more touchdown throws than anyone else.
It makes even more sense for the Ravens to expand on the passing game considering Jackson had an average of 2.92 seconds to throw the football in 2019. The only quarterbacks that had more time to throw were Kirk Cousins (3.01) and Jacoby Brissett (2.93).
The next step will be for Lamar Jackson to carry over his success as a passer from the regular season into the playoffs. It will take some pressure off the running game and make it more difficult for the opposition to gameplan against.