thelesterlee
Lamar Jackson has officially become the highest-paid player in the NFL following an offseason of getting dragged in the mud by every single NFL media member. Everyone wanted to tell Lamar why he doesn’t deserve a big contract anddddddd now he’s up a cool $260 million.
In an interview with ESPN, Lamar shared his goals for the upcoming season:
“I want to throw for like 6,000 yards with the weapons we have. I’m not an individual award-type guy or a stat watcher. I just want to do that because no one has ever done it and I feel like we have the weapons to do it.”
I love Lamar’s confidence in what he believes he is capable of accomplishing. Lamar Jackson wants to throw for 6000 yards and break single-season records. There is nothing wrong with setting goals for yourself.
But you should probably set obtainable goals. The most yards Lamar has ever thrown in a season was 3,127 in his 2019 MVP year. Jackson now wants to double that number.
If you’re a Ravens fan, you should be praying that this man is only kidding. The Ravens gave Lamar $260 million because he’s the most dynamic running quarterback in NFL history. His ability to make defenders miss once he breaks the pocket is truly special.
It feels like Lamar ingested all of the criticisms that ESPN talking heads had to say about his inability to throw the ball as effectively as his peers and he wants to prove the doubters wrong. There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you’re capable of and wanting to show that potential to the world.
But I fear Lamar is going to try and prove that he deserves that contract Baltimore gave him which could result in him playing outside of himself and forcing throws so people will call him a ‘pocket passer’. It’s like when I went on a date with a girl who complained that I didn’t fill her water glass every time I filled my own so the next date I was pouring her water every 50 seconds. There wasn’t a third date if you were curious.
Lamar already signed his name on the dotted line. There is absolutely no need to play a style of football you’re not comfortable with so that assholes like me can pat you on the back.
The biggest problem in Jackson’s game isn’t his arm talent. It’s his inability to stay healthy over the course of a 17-game season. Lamar should be putting all of his time and attention into building and maintaining a body that can withstand the physicality of a full year of football.
There’s also this common misconception that running quarterbacks are more susceptible to injuries when in actuality, most scrambling quarterbacks run out of bounds or slide to avoid contact. It’s actually quarterbacks who are sitting in the pocket and getting crushed without bracing themselves for the impending blow from a linebacker. So Lamar Jackson trying to throw for 6000 yards might actually leave him even more exposed to be injured in the backfield.
Now, that 6,000 yards quote was probably meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It sounds like Lamar is simply saying how confident he is in his new wide receiving corp led by the signing of Odell Beckham, drafting Zay Flowers and Rashad Bateman returning from injury.
Jackson has already shown the world that he’s capable of winning football games without all the bells and whistles. And by bells and whistles, I mean talented receivers. His 45-16 win-loss record is the 4th best among any starting QB to debut in the Super Bowl era. So now that they have some real playmakers out there, the Ravens might be a real threat to win that championship.
And I guess we’ll all just pretend like Lamar didn’t have to beg for this organization to compensate him properly and we’ll all just pretend we weren’t arguing about how terrible he is as if any of the money he was asking for was coming out of any of our pockets.
If this man plays all 17 games this season, there is no doubt in my mind he will break some sort of record. And please don’t screenshot this and send it to me if he sets like, the single-season fumble record or whatever.
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