Though it’s unusual to make use of the phrase boring in reference to Lamar Jackson, the primary two and a half weeks of his coaching camp have been comparatively uneventful, blessedly so in the event you ask the Ravens’ franchise quarterback.
Coming off a yr by which he missed vital observe and recreation time due to sickness and harm, he has not been absent for a second of camp. He has not hit peak kind in each observe however has thrown with extra zip and accuracy than in any earlier summer season of his profession.
“I like it like this,” he stated Saturday, talking with reporters for the second time since camp started. “I was able to start Day One. And what is it, like Day 15 for us? And I’m feeling pretty good. Nothing is wrong with me.”
Jackson surfed into his fifth season on a wave of hypothesis a few attainable contract extension. Would he maintain out? Hold in? Set a public deadline for the tip of negotiations?
He provided no replace Saturday however did say he doesn’t need talks with common supervisor Eric DeCosta to increase into the common season, which begins Sept. 11 on the New York Jets. The better level, as coaches and teammates see it, is that Jackson has not let the contract story impinge on his observe kind.
“He’s doing a great job. He’s practicing every day. The business part of it is the business part,” coach John Harbaugh stated. “I’m very confident that will get done. You can’t really rush it. Neither side wants to rush anything. Both sides want to be happy when it’s all said and done, and probably both sides unhappy … to some degree, but that’s kind of how it works. But he’s doing a great job, he’s practicing well and he’s a great leader.”
Jackson’s backup, Tyler Huntley, stated he appears to the previous Most Valuable Player as a mannequin for shutting out extraneous noise.
“I look to him where’s that stuff like that,” he stated. “He just blocks it out. Just focus on what’s going on right now instead of what’s outside, because we can’t control none of that stuff going on, what everybody’s talking about. One thing we can control is what’s going on on the field. He told me that.”
Huntley stated Jackson is “throwing the hell out of the ball.”
Quarterbacks coach James Urban agreed, saying Jackson has constructed on his sharp efficiency through the workforce’s necessary minicamp in June.
“And then some,” Urban stated. “He’s looked as good and as sharp on many of the things that we worked at specifically and emphasized — I call them the squeaky wheels — and he’s in a great place.”
For instance, Jackson has talked about attempting to maintain his left arm calm so he can observe by cleanly on his throwing movement.
“If you rip out your left elbow, your left shoulder, then you get wild,” Urban stated, torquing his higher physique to exhibit. “Just generically speaking, watch any NFL quarterback throw and there’s some calmness to the left side. Watch a baseball pitcher, same thing. … Mechanically speaking, that is something we’ve talked a lot about.”
Urban went again to one in all his favourite comparisons, saying Jackson is sort of a youthful Michael Jordan, who wanted so as to add a dependable bounce shot and a candy fadeaway to his drive-and-finish recreation. “What area of my game needs improvement?” the quarterbacks coach stated. “What area of my game needs to grow?”
He stated he and Jackson’s personal throwing coach, Adam Dedeaux, have collaborated on steering the 25-year-old famous person by these refinements.
“Adam and I work very closely together; we’re very friendly,” Urban stated. “We’re colleagues. He asks me questions. I ask him questions. It’s been a great symbiotic relationship.”
One query round Jackson by no means appears to alter: Will he break down if he continues to common double-digit carries per recreation as a runner? “I’ve been good with how I’ve been playing, but when I tried to sit and stay in the pocket, I got hurt for the first time,” he stated, referring to the ankle harm he suffered final season in Cleveland. “So I think it speaks for itself.”
He not too long ago advised NFL Network that his weight is as much as 230 kilos, roughly 20 kilos of muscle north of the place he performed final season. Is the better bulk designed to make him extra sturdy?
Jackson largely laughed off the query. “I just wanted to look the part,” he stated. “I just wanted to look a little sturdy back there, look a little big. I feel like it worked. I’m still fast, still moving around like I was.”
Urban stated he’ll by no means inform Jackson to cease utilizing his distinctive items. “Don’t let me coach you out of being a great player,” he stated he tells him. “Trust your instincts.”
Jackson didn’t play within the preseason opener Thursday. When requested if he’ll go in for a collection or two within the Ravens’ Sunday night time matchup in opposition to the Arizona Cardinals, he stated, “I might give it a shot; I don’t know yet.”
If his camp has been calm in comparison with final yr, when he missed the beginning as a result of he was sick with COVID-19, he’s nonetheless by no means allowed to neglect that the entire franchise’s hopes for a Super Bowl hinge on him.
Jackson lives one other Beatles second on the finish of each observe as a mob of younger followers, many sporting his No. 8 jersey, serenades him with cries of “Lamar! Lamar!” He tries to slap as many arms as attainable with out being swallowed up.
Does he ever go away dwelling and never hear somebody yelling his title? “No, I don’t,” he stated.
Preseason, Week 2
RAVENS@CARDINALS
Next Sunday, 8 p.m.
TV: Ch. 45
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com