Given Lamar Jackson's recent injuries, along with the Ravens' recent change of offensive coordinators, it's been widely expected that Baltimore's quarterback will be asked to rely more on his arm and less on his legs moving forward.
Jackson confirmed he will run less this season when speaking with the media at OTAs. He said he will "absolutely" run less in 2023 and that he is excited about what he's seen from Todd Monken's offense so far.
"Running can only take you so far. I feel like with this new era of teams and offenses in the league, I feel like we need that," Jackson said.
His comments echoed what the new Ravens offensive coordinator recently said regarding Jackson's role in the offense moving forward.
"I think the more talented you are around your quarterback, the less he has to take on that burden and shoulder the load, because you're excited about getting others the football where they can utilize their skill set," Monken said. "So I think that kind of answers itself.
"As you get further into your career … you want to take some of that off the player as best as you can. But he also has a unique trait, a unique skill set. You can't take that completely out of his tool box because that's a huge weapon for him and for us, is using his feet."
As Monken referenced, asking Jackson not to run would be like asking Brett Favre to stop threading the needle during his Hall of Fame career. Like Jackson's running, Favre's risk-taking contributed to a lot of success for himself and his teams, especially the late-'90s Packers who played in three straight NFC title games and back-to-back Super Bowls (winning one).
There were repercussions, however, with Favre's gunslinger mentality, just as there is with Jackson's running. Favre threw three costly interceptions in three different NFC title games that each contributed to tough losses. Jackson has been unable to complete the past two seasons; he missed a total of 10 games over that span. The Ravens missed the playoffs without Jackson in 2021. They were a quick out in 2022 with Jackson watching Baltimore's wild card playoff loss from home.
A fitting historical comparison to Jackson would be Steve Young, who used his legs to score 43 touchdowns with a 5.9 yards-per-carry average during his Hall of Fame career. But as Young got older, he used his legs as a complementary part of his game. In Super Bowl XXIX, Young became the first quarterback to lead both teams in rushing in Super Bowl history. But what is more remembered from that game is Young throwing a Super Bowl-record six touchdown passes in the 49ers' blowout win over the Chargers.
The narrative the Ravens had to use Jackson the way they've been using him is rubbish. Jackson has a career passing percentage of 63.7%. He led the NFL in touchdown passes during his MVP season. Sure, he may not have Patrick Mahomes-like accuracy on deep passes, but Jackson has the ability to stretch defenses out with his arm. It's also not like the Ravens did him many favors as far as his receiving corps in the past. That won't be the case this year, however, as the Ravens acquired three-time Pro Bowl wideout Odell Beckham Jr. and first-round pick Zay Flowers.
Based on Jackson and Monken's comments, it appears that Jackson's arm will be leaned on more moving forward. Monken was careful, however, to not divulge more information on what the Ravens' offense might look like this season. Like Muhammad Ali dodging haymakers in his prime, Monken sidestepped questions about the Ravens possibly employing an up-tempo, spread-heavy attack.
"You'd like to be able to spread the field, use every blade of grass," he said. "What dictates that? Your ability to function doing that. Having enough players that a defense would have to respect using all of that."
