09-01-2024 NFL Preview - Flipbook - Page 8
NFL ’24
Sunday, September 1, 2024 8
RAVENS
Thinner.
Faster.
Better?
For a slimmer Lamar Jackson, the game
is slowing down. The star quarterback lost
weight but gained confidence this offseason
By Brian Wacker
‘Y
ou must be waiting for
the fastest slow person
in the building,” the
female security guard
standing outside the door leading from
the Ravens’ practice field to the locker
room said with an impish smile in
the searing heat of the late afternoon
summer sun. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is a blur only between the lines.
Away from them, he often takes a more
measured pace, like when this past
offseason he attempted to give a friend
a tattoo, carefully trying his skills with
an ink gun.
“Horrible,” he said of his tattooing ability as he sat down for a recent interview
with The Baltimore Sun. “On a scale of 1
to 10, a zero.”
Jackson’s skills with a football in hand,
of course, rate much higher. It’s why he has
been popping up all over the place in recent
months — Paris for Fashion Week, New
York for a Men’s Health workout video,
and Las Vegas where this past February
he became the youngest player at age 27 to
collect a second NFL Most Valuable Player
Award. It was a brief and bittersweet trip,
however, with the more elusive Vince
Lombardi Trophy handed out a few days
later to the Super Bowl champion Kansas
City Chiefs, who beat the Ravens in the
AFC championship game on their way to a
second straight title and third in five years.
It was in that loss to the Chiefs at M&T
Bank Stadium that Jackson made one of the
more indelible plays in a long list of them
— one that was as much emblematic of his
dazzling talents but also perhaps of Baltimore’s shortcomings in its quest for its first
Super Bowl title in more than a decade.
With the Ravens trailing 14-7 with 5 1/2
minutes remaining in the first half and
searching to find any kind of rhythm, Jackson dropped back to pass on second-and-5
from his own 18-yard line when blitzing
safety Justin Reid batted the quarterback’s attempted dump-off to running
back Justice Hill in the left flat skyward.
Jackson tracked and chased down the fluttering ball, caught it and raced forward.
The official stat line reads, “L. Jackson
“The game has slowed down a little for me,” Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said.“I can
react faster to certain things.” KARL MERTON FERRON/STAFF
pass short left to L. Jackson to BLT 31 for
13 yards,” but it was the shoestring tackle
by linebacker Due Tranquill that lingered
long after.
“I want that to be a touchdown,” Jackson
told The Sun when asked which play he
would want back from last season. “That
would’ve changed the dynamic of the game
if I would’ve scored.”
And in years past, perhaps he would
have.
“I was fat,” continues Jackson, noting his
weight loss from 230 pounds two seasons
ago to 210 last year to about 200 currently.
“I had to lose some weight. No way a linebacker should be able to dive and grab my
legs like that.”
Instead of a potentially history-altering
score, the drive ended in a punt. Baltimore
knows the rest.
Months later, the painful sting of that
defeat has subsided, washed away by the
optimism of a new season. But if there was
one thing Jackson’s first trip to a conference championship exposed — as if anyone
needs to be reminded — it’s that the Ravens
can’t solely rely on their star quarterback,
even as his successes portend the team’s.
There are other reasons for hope in 2024,
though — notably Jackson’s increased
comfort and involvement in Year 2 of
coordinator Todd Monken’s offense after
career highs in passing yards and completion percentage, the addition of four-time
Pro Bowl running back and two-time NFL
rushing champ Derrick Henry, and the
burgeoning symmetry between the quarterback and second-year wide receiver
Zay Flowers as well as emerging tight end
Isaiah Likely.
Turn to Jackson, Page 10
