Lamar Jackson continues to impress his teammates and coaches with his work ethic.
Training camp is still a month away, but Jackson won’t stop building toward the 2021 regular season. He plans to meet with some of the wide receivers for workouts in the coming weeks to continue working on their chemistry.
“I’ll do something individualized with my guys,” Jackson said. “I’ll get with the receivers while we’re down in Florida and stuff like that and pretty much grind because the season is here. It’s really not the offseason anymore. For us, I’ll say, we’ve just gotta keep grinding and stay in shape.”
It won’t be the first time Jackson has met with his teammates in the offseason.
He worked out with tight end Mark Andrews, wide receiver Hollywood Brown, and running back J.K. Dobbins in Arizona earlier this year.
Jackson also made headlines when he worked out with Antonio Brown, fueling speculation the Ravens were interested in signing the mercurial wide receiver.
Last year, Jackson gathered the team’s wide receivers in South Florida to run drills because the practice facilities were closed around the NFL because of COVID-19.
The Ravens are looking to upgrade a passing attack that ranked last in the NFL last year. Jackson is determined to change that dynamic and has looked mostly solid during the voluntary workouts and mandatory minicamp.
.@Lj_era8 on what he focused on this offseason: pic.twitter.com/nA9aaYuMrC
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) June 16, 2021
Baltimore hopes to show off that new passing attack when it travels to Las Vegas for the regular-season opener.
“We can’t go backward right now, because we already had our fun and did whatever we did during the regular offseason,” Jackson said. “Not this time; it’s straight go-mode right now. The season is here. We’re focusing on the Raiders.”
Coach John Harbaugh has already seen the benefits with the extra practice time this year, as opposed to 2020 when the team was limited to virtual meetings because of the pandemic.
“We’re a young team [with] a young quarterback, a young group of receivers and tight ends – the whole thing. So, last year really limits what you can do if you don’t have a suitcase full of plays that everyone knows how to run and execute and have executed hundreds of times together before.
“That would’ve been a benefit last year to teams like that, and it did show up, probably. You look at even the two teams in the Super Bowl. So, I do believe that this will be a big help to us across the board as a young team, especially a young offense.”
The Ravens were committed to upgrading the passing game this offseason and added veteran wide receiver Sammy Watkins in free agency. GM Eric DeCosta also added Rashod Bateman and Tylan Wallace via the NFL draft.
That means there will be heated competition for roster spots with Miles Boykin, Devin Duvernay, Deon Cain, and James Proche also in the mix.
“We’re very happy the way it played out,” DeCosta said. “We’re excited. But I also want to say that we feel really, really good about the guys that are already on the campus. Those guys are going to compete, they’re good players, [and] they’re going to help us win a lot of games. All we’ve done really is just kind of stack the deck and create a lot of competition.”
It all starts with Jackson, who is entering his fourth season in the NFL. Jackson won the first playoff game of his young career last season and is looking to take the Ravens even further this year, perhaps all the way to the Super Bowl.
“We’ve been working – not just me,” Jackson said. “All the QBs and the receivers, we’ve been getting together and trying to make that a big emphasis for us this year. People are always saying we throw short, intermediate routes and stuff like that – little five-yard, 10-yard routes.
“But we had some chances last year. We hit some of them, but we’re just trying to be more consistent this year, and that’s where the strides happen. It starts in practice, and hopefully, it transitions to the game. We’ve just got to keep working on it.”
