OWINGS MILLS, Md. — We have all seen it through 12 weeks of this season. Lamar Jackson has become a better passer. The man working with him every day has seen it, too.
“It feels different watching the games and being around him every day,” said Ravens quarterbacks coach Tee Martin.
Martin added that the in-game differences start as soon as the ball is snapped.
“He is getting through his progressions really quick. He is being very disciplined in his progressions and that’s allowing him to be consistently successful in the passing game.”
Jackson’s 68.3 completion percentage is a career best. It is better than the 66.1 from his 2019 MVP season. He has also surpassed last year’s number of completions through the same amount of games. He has 228 completions in 2023. That is 25 more than his 12-game 2022 campaign and only 37 off his career high of 265 set when he played in 15 games in 2019.
Martin thinks diagnosing and finding the best passing option when the play breaks down is where Lamar has grown the most. In previous years when that happened you expected him to run.
“That’s where you can see the maturation of Lamar – is, ‘I understand the intent of the play, but if it’s not there …’ You saw Sunday night, him checking down in situations where Isaiah Likely got huge gains when the pass concept was meant for us to go deeper downfield, but it wasn’t there. They were dropping underneath it; they were deep; he checked it down, and we were still averaging like nine yards per reception on those types [of] plays. So, I think that he’s grown in those areas. He’s always been doing it, [and] it’s always been there, but I think he’s consistently doing it more when it presents itself this season.
“I think before, [Lamar Jackson] would rely sometimes on his own talent, and it would be great.” (laughter) “You [would] get a chance to see how dynamic he could be – sometimes using his legs [or] sometimes starting to use his legs and finding Mark Andrews downfield and doing different things. Lamar is so dynamic, and in so many different ways, that plays can play out. So, specifically to say what he would have done in the past, I can’t say that. But I can say that he’s consistently doing things like that this year, and it feels different [after] watching the games and just being around him every day.”
Lamar is having all this success while operating in a new offense. He is the point man in year one for new offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
“That’s really unique for someone to be as advanced in a new system, new terminology, and it’s like this has been the way the whole time,” said Martin.
Now the challenge is keeping it that way through the final five weeks of the regular season and beyond.
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerWMAR and Facebook
