Ravens’ Lamar Jackson plan raises questions at quarterback

Baltimore may be already preparing for a quarterback switch.

When the Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson, it was obvious he would be the Ravens’ quarterback of the future. It seems now that Baltimore’s future could be sooner than we thought. According to NFL.com, the team is already preparing a special package to take advantage of Jackson’s unique skill set.

Coach John Harbaugh didn’t mince words about how he felt regarding his rookie signal caller. He told reporters that Jackson “is a guy that can help us win games” and Harbaugh didn’t add any qualifiers to that statement. In other words, he didn’t say Jackson was a player that could win them games in 2019.

Harbaugh’s decision to allow his offensive staff to start working on a custom package for Jackson should be a clear warning sign to incumbent starter Joe Flacco. It’s been a long time since Flacco shepherded the Ravens to a Super Bowl title. His play over the past few years has been less than stellar. The fact that the coaching staff wants to get Jackson on the field early in his rookie season should be a major concern for Flacco.

Flacco fans will undoubtedly point out that Jackson is a completely different player than the current Ravens starting signal caller. Jackson has the ability to make plays with his feet while Flacco functions almost exclusively in the pocket at this point of his career. It’s possible the Ravens are just trying to diversify their offense by creating a custom package for Jackson.

That theory would make more sense if Flacco seemed interested in serving as a mentor to Jackson. The rookie quarterback told the media the pair hadn’t spoken yet. It seems that Flacco would make a point to reach out to Jackson if he really thought his job was to prepare him to take over a few seasons down the line.

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Jackson, of course, is just happy to be in the mix with his new team.

The rookie told reporters that the idea his coaching staff wanted to use him immediately was “cool” to him. Still, it’s very possible a changing of the guard could be happening between Jackson and Flacco sooner than anyone is projecting.