The Baltimore Ravens made a bold move to end the Joe Flacco era in the middle of last season in favor of rookie Lamar Jackson. Now they’re about to completely revamp the offense, tailoring it to suit Jackson’s unique skill set.
On Tuesday, new Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman opened up about the process.
“I’m very excited for this opportunity. It’s a great organization, a lot of knowledge in this building, a lot of experience. We’re in the throes right now offensively of pretty much re-imagining our offense,” Roman said, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic (on Twitter).
“Lamar Jackson is a pretty special player … We’re trying to really, soup to nuts, from the ground up, we’re pouring flower on it and trying to hit the sweet spot with how we put this offense together.”
Roman stressed, “We really want to start fresh, start new. Rebuild the thing from the ground up.” He also said Jackson knows his fumbling has to stop (it was a big problem last season) but noted the Ravens “feel great about” his ability to throw the football.
It’s interesting that Roman is the guy Baltimore chose for this job. He orchestrated the Colin Kaepernick-led offense in San Francisco under Jim Harbaugh and was also the coordinator in Buffalo when Tyrod Taylor was performing well from 2015-16.
In both of those offenses, while the quarterbacks were dual-threat guys, Roman was much more interested in getting the traditional running game going while sprinkling in designed quarterback runs, rather than running his quarterbacks 15-plus times per game. Last season, Jackson attempted 147 rushes in just seven starts.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Baltimore ends up crafting the offense around Jackson’s game in 2019 and beyond. He has incredible talent as a pure passer than needs to be refined, and clearly he has a bright future as long as he avoids the big hit.