Lamar Jackson has a new offensive coordinator and a new offense.
He’s had that before but not like this. In previous coordinator transitions, the offense had some carryover in schemes, concepts and terminology.
Declan Doyle, who worked under Ben Johnson last season, is installing things that wide receiver Zay Flowers says he’s “never seen before.”
That has Jackson working as hard as he has in any offseason since his rookie year.
“I’m being challenged right now,” Jackson said, via The Baltimore Banner. “It’s a new system [with] a lot of terminology within this system. Nothing really transitioned over from the last system.”
Doyle is coaching Jackson hard, sometimes using expletives with his quarterback to make his point. That, Jackson said, is something he “wasn’t used to.”
“I’m a coachable player,” Jackson said. “Sometimes he sees things that I don’t see. Sometimes I see things that he might have not thought of. And it’s just great to have. We piggyback off of each other.”
Jackson was 6-7 last season, the first time he has had a losing record. He had 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions and ran for a career-low 349 yards and two touchdowns.L
Ravens kicker Tyler Loop had a chance to send his team to the playoffs in Week 18, but he missed a field goal at the final whistle in a 26-24 loss to the Steelers that set off an offseason of change in Baltimore that included the departure of head coach John Harbaugh.
Loop was more successful at the end of Wednesday’s minicamp practice when he hit a 40-yarder that caused new head coach Jesse Minter to call off post-practice meetings for the team’s players. While that made plenty of Ravens happy, there was a little less pressure than his miss against the Steelers but Loop said that his belief in his ability to make his next big kick hasn’t been shaken.
“I would say that the biggest thing I did was acknowledge and accept it,” Loop said, via the team’s website. “Moving on from the kick itself was pretty easy. I’d say the biggest part moving on was just letting the people that I care about, and that care about me, know that I’m good. Nothing’s changed for me. I still feel confident in my abilities.”
Loop was 30-of-34 on field goals after being drafted in the sixth round last year and the Ravens will be hoping any future misses come at less significant moments than his fourth one of the 2025 season.
Calais Campbell returned to the Ravens for his 19th NFL season and the defensive lineman isn’t looking past this year when it comes to his playing future.
Campbell told reporters on Tuesday that he expects the 2026 campaign to be his final one in professional football. Campbell did offer the caveat that he has thought that in the past and his answer to why he has continued to play explains why the door hasn’t been slammed shut at this point.
“Everybody asks ‘why do you keeping doing this?’ The only answer I can really say is that I love this game,” Campbell said. “I love it, I’m still fairly good at it and they still want me to play, so why not?”
Campbell played for the Ravens from 2020-2022 and said that the chance to play for defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver again factored into his decision to make Baltimore the final projected stop in his NFL career.
The Ravens backed out of a trade for Maxx Crosby in March after the edge rusher failed their physical. The team reportedly was concerned about Crosby’s durability because of a degenerative issue in his knee.
Crosby and the Raiders don’t share those concerns.
He is back with the Raiders and still rehabbing from a January surgery to repair a torn meniscus on Jan. 7. Crosby jogged and stretched with teammates at Wednesday’s OTA before going inside to continue his physical therapy.
Crosby expects to be back soon.
“I’m at the point where I’m almost there, but I forget that I need to relax a little bit, so that’s kind of been the biggest battle right now,” Crosby said, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN.
Crosby played through the left knee injury from Week 7 last season before going on injured reserve on Dec. 27.
“Ultimately, it has probably been the best [rehab] by far, and we’re not even to the finish line,” Crosby said. “It’s been better because I’ve been able to focus on other things. Whether that’s being in the weight room, like I’m moving more weight than I ever have, and doing things in a different way, and being able to get my body the proper rest that it actually needs.
“This has forced me to have to take a step back in certain areas and not run 8,000 yards on the field every single day.”
The Browns added a little extra protection for themselves to complete the Myles Garrett trade to the Rams this week.
While Cleveland received edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick from Los Angeles in exchange for Garrett, the league’s daily transaction wire noted that the final pick was conditional.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the condition on that 2029 third-round pick is that it will become a first-round pick in the event that the Rams trade Garrett to a team in the AFC North.
It doesn’t seem likely that the Rams would even want to trade Garrett at any point in the future.
But just in case they do, the Browns have at least made it unlikely that they’ll ever see Garrett twice a year on the opposing sideline.
