An emerging storyline in Ravens camp is that new offensive coordinator Todd Monken is accepting input from quarterback Lamar Jackson regarding plays that could be added to the attack. Jackson’s repeated remarks on the issue carry a significant implication.
Previously, offensive coordinator Greg Roman did not.
“I was just on social media, and I saw a couple of routes, and I sent it to [quarterbacks] coach Tee [Martin] and he was like, ‘I’m going to relay the message to Coach Monken,’” Jackson told reporters after Tuesday’s practice, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. “Coach Monken liked the play, so he put it in practice. We didn’t show it today, but I feel like it will be good for us.”
During the TV broadcast of Saturday night’s preseason opener, Jackson said that he has been sending plays to Monken, “and he’s been putting them in practice, and they’re working. So it’s like, I’m glad he’s listening to me, man.”
It’s unclear whether, in the past, Jackson didn’t try or Roman didn’t ask or Jackson tried and Roman didn’t do anything with his ideas. Regardless, Jackson now is an active participant in the construction of the offense. Which will make it far more likely that he will fully buy into it.
Comments from tight end Mark Andrews seem to indicate that the new approach is a break from the past.
"[Lamar Jackson]'s got a good eye,” Andrews said, via Hensley. “If anybody ever asks him, or you just pick his mind about plays and where he sees the game and that sort of thing. . . . And now that he’s getting that input, it’s been great. Yes, he sees the game really well.”
Head coach John Harbaugh, who decided that a change needed to be made from Roman to Monken, is pleased that Monken is seeking out input from Jackson.
“He’s a guy [who] thinks about football a lot -- it’s on his mind -- and I think he always had his ideas,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday, via Hensley. “He had a couple good ones; I can tell you that.”
The biggest question for the Baltimore offense becomes whether Monken and Jackson will stick with passes when it’s tempting to let Jackson take off for a run five or six yards, for example, on third down. If Jackson hopes to make the transition to more of a passer in order to extend his career deeper into his thirties, he needs to be thinking about making that change — and he needs to commit to do it. Monken does, too.
It ultimately comes down to trying the different approach, and to having some success with it. That will make it easier for the offense to make the transition into the kind of attack that would give Jackson a chance to land somewhere within the general vicinity of his stated goal to throw for 6,000 yards.
