Ravens 2021 NFL Draft primer in search of reliable targets for Lamar Jackson

Lamar Jackson helped the Baltimore Ravens defeat the Tennessee Titans in the 2020 wildcard showdown after suffering an early 10-0 deficit. Although Jackson did most of the work with his legs, he still did enough with the arm to win. Things went very similar in the AFC Divisional Round against the Buffalo Bills, but Jackson just struggled to convert with his legs.

Are there times where Jackson is overly reliant on his legs? Absolutely. However, pinning playoff losses strictly on Jackson and simply giving up on the arm talent is unwarranted. The Ravens had seven different offensive line combinations up front thanks to injuries all across the board.

How can Ravens get over the hump?

Losing Ronnie Stanley, arguably one of the best left tackles in the game is hard to overcome. When has there been any discussion about Greg Roman? The playcalling was nowhere near as consistent and prevented doing any favors for his franchise quarterback.

The skill positions need to be upgraded, and the Ravens fanbase has talked about it for years. A group that consists of Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Willie Snead IV, Miles Boykin, and Devin Duvernay should not be expected to support a growing talent like Jackson. The only separator of the aforementioned players is Brown, 175 pounds soaking wet and has the catch radius of an alligator.

Pinning losses on Jackson is pretty farfetched and makes little sense. The finger-pointing needs to be done at the front office, and coaches who have yet to understand that their future franchise signal-caller needs to be surrounded by receivers who separate. Hopefully, that is their primary focus before making Jackson one of the highest-paid players in the sport’s history.