Last season, Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson was pretty undeniably the most dominant player in the league as he won the league’s MVP Award in a landslide. But it sounds like one NFL defensive coordinator is not necessarily all that impressed with what he has seen from the quarterback.
Ahead of the 2024 season, one anonymous NFL defensive coordinator spoke to Mike Sando of The Athletic about Jackson’s performance in the previous AFC Championship Game, and it’s pretty clear that he thinks Jackson is quite limited when it comes to his passing ability, saying bluntly that he “can’t pass when he has to.”
“He’s a 1 with limitations for me,” one NFL defensive coordinator said. “You can win a lot of games with him. When you watched it against Kansas City, he can’t pass when he has to. That is still true. But he is still a wonderful football player.”
It’s worth noting that Lamar Jackson ranked No. 5 in the entire league in passer rating and ranked in the top 10 in the league in terms of completion percentage. He ranked ahead of Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes in both categories. So the numbers don’t necessarily back up this claim.