If Bruce Arians was still the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, you can bet he’d be banging on the table — hard, we might add — for general manager Steve Keim to draft Lamar Jackson to be the quarterback of the future.
Nowadays, Arians is working on becoming an NFL analyst. He recently spoke with Bob McManaman of AZCentral Sports and made it clear that Arizona, which has the No. 15 overall pick, shouldn’t hesitate to spend that pick on Jackson.
“That’s one guy I really am intrigued with because he can spin it and he’s been in a pro-style offense and he’s been hard coached by Bobby (Petrino),” he said. “He brings that unique skill set and it makes me look back at Vince Young. Vince could beat you and he was a heck of a leader. I don’t know why it didn’t work out for him but listening to him now, telling his story, he’s like, ‘I didn’t put the time in.’”
The big thing there to pay attention to is that Jackson, unknown to many casual observers, actually DID run a pro-style offense at Louisville. This intrigues Arians, a noted quarterback guru during his time coaching in the league.
“Because he does it. He sits in there and flips it up the field,” Arians said. “He’s been in a pro-style offense. He’s more of a scrambler with designed runs. I don’t think I’d design runs for him. I would just let him, a la Russell Wilson, take what’s there, and whoosh, take off running.”
And unlike Vince Young, who admits he didn’t put the time in to work at his craft, Jackson, by all accounts, is a tireless worker.
“I think Lamar puts the time in. He’s going to get better, and he just brings that unique ability to break the game open with his legs.”
For what it’s worth, this scribe would absolutely love to see the Cardinals use the No. 15 overall pick on Jackson. If he’s still on the board, of course. Arizona has Sam Bradford there as the short-term starter, so Jackson won’t have any pressure on him to be perfect right away. And don’t even get me started about how good he and David Johnson could be in the same backfield.
It’s a match made in heaven, if you ask me. But I’m not the one picking, and I have doubts that Keim will see Jackson the same way Arians does. It’s going to be fascinating to see what the Cardinals do, because they still don’t have any long-term solution to the biggest problem an NFL team can face.