The Bizarre Phenomenon Of Lamar Jackson Hate
In the past year I’ve noticed a weird type of football guy. The Lamar Jackson hater. This is a specific type of guy, with an absolutely quacked out perspective on Lamar.
This specific type of hater likes to call Lamar a runningback. Now some trolling and dumb trash talking is bound to happen. Of course rival fans are going to slam the guy with insults like that. But a surprising amount of actual Baltimore fans have also expressed this opinion. I’ve seen a not insignificant amount of idiots who actually think the Ravens should move on from the former MVP, or that he’s on a tight leash right now because he hasn’t proven he’s a long term answer, and it’s baffling. Do these people actually watch football?
To get the big one out of the way, part of it is obviously racism. Lamar Jackson is a black quarterback who excels at something NFL society has essentially designated a black “style” of play. He runs and scrambles a lot, you know, like Vick, or Randall Cunningham, or Kaep. This ignores that plenty of white QBs also scramble and run a lot, and plenty of black QBs are pocket passers, or the quality mix of QBs who are both. Running a lot as a QB is still racially coded as a black QB thing. The fact that Jackson is probably the most “Vick” player since Vick himself just makes it easier to dismiss him like that.
A lot of Jackson defenders will rightly point out that Jackson seems like he’s under an absurd microscope at times while other white players get the benefit of the doubt. Sam Darnold still has a lot of support despite never doing anything of value whatsoever. In an interesting comparison that I don’t see anyone else pointing out, look at Tim Tebow. Tebow is the closest we’ve ever gotten to the “white” version of Mike Vick or what many people see Jackson as. A QB who’s main skillset is primarily running and is lacking in passing. Tebow got a lot of hate, but to this very day he still has dedicated legions of followers who still think he would have been the greatest player in NFL history. Tebow as an NFL player was a fraction of what Jackson has been.
Ignoring the racial component, the Lamar hate still doesn’t make much sense. Does he have limitations as a passer? Sure. So do most QBs. Does he run the ball a lot? Yeah, he sure does. You know why? The Ravens team is built for it. Greg Roman, the OC, loves running the ball. He was the guy behind Kaepernick’s peak in San Francisco. Greg Roman is also not perfect and deserves plenty of criticism for some of his playcalls and gameplans. But on top of that, the Ravens like to run the ball with Lamar for one very good reason: He’s fucking good at it. Why would you not design an offense around one of your quarterback’s best skills? The best coaches in football are the best because they take what players are best at and find ways to incorporate those skills into their gameplans! How many players have had their development stunted or outright ruined because of coaches trying to force a square peg into a round hole? If a player is really good at something, design your plays to take advantage of it and minimize making them do what they aren’t as good at. That’s good football! So of fucking course when you have a human joystick at QB you should fucking use him like it.
Not to mention that the Ravens haven’t had any good passing weapons in Lamar’s time. It was an obvious major problem with the Ravens offense. Nobody could get open for Lamar to throw them the ball, when he did they dropped it a lot. No wonder he frequently ran instead. Frankly I don’t see how that’s really a mark against him. If you’ve got nowhere to go, don’t force it, take what you can get, and if you can get it via your legs, well go for it champ. Should Lamar take more risks and try to make some of these throws instead of automatically going ground? Sure. Like we’ve established, he’s not perfect, and his passing isn’t as strong as you’d hope. But it’s not like he can’t throw the ball. He’s not Tebow, who had awful mechanics and horrid accuracy, he’s not bad at throwing, he’s just not excellent and has some limits. I see no reason to believe he can’t get better at throwing. Josh Allen did. He just needs some good coaching and to work on it.
But for fucks sake, I could throw all sorts of Lamar defenses up and none of it really matters because at this point, if you don’t think Lamar Jackson can be the guy, you’re a complete idiot. Even with his flaws, do you really think this guy can’t do it? He’s already won MVP. He’s only 24 years old. He’s led the Ravens to the divisional round two years in a row, in two seasons as the full starter. He’s accomplished so much already and he’s still so young. As long as the Ravens don’t mismanage him and he stays healthy, why can’t he also develop as a passer with the ample time he has? Jackson is electric and he’s got Vick’s running skills with better passing skills. I’d be ecstatic to have Jackson as my QB right now. It’s not like he’s an Andy Dalton type, who is right on the cusp of being replaceable. Jackson is not replaceable. Any flaws he has are absolutely worth the upside and he has years to grow. Only a moron would want to dump him and move on like they are easily going to find replacement Tom Brady just sitting there. When you got a guy who can do it, you fucking keep him and develop him.
The Ravens have their franchise QB and anyone who wants to move on from the guy at this point in time is an absolute buffoon.
Full disclosure – With a 6 year old, I barely get to watch Giants games, let alone other teams, so I’ve never seen Lamar for a full 60.
Yet despite this, I can easily recall MANY sports segments talking about his “inability” to win a playoff game, equating him to a playoff choker in the vein of Peyton or Aaron.
Is that accurate? I dunno. Is it racism? I dunno. I wouldn’t trade him.
But if I, a person who cares NOTHING about the Ravens, hears Lamar Jackson’s name and *immediately* associates it to the many many sound bites talking about how he tanks when the pressure is on, I imagine many fans of the Ravens who inundate themselves with that kind of media might fall in line with it.
As a Ravens fan, I don’t blame fans of other teams who make assumptions based on what they’ve heard from talking heads. The “Jackson wilts under pressure” narrative has been disproven, and the talking heads mostly harp on it because they pick topics that draw ratings and get reactions, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it unless you watched the Ravens.
Ravens fans who have seen Jackson play should know better. He’s not flawless, but he’s firmly in that good-to-great range.
You make an excellent point. If the tape says otherwise, then yea, the fans should be able to see that.
He hasn’t performed in the playoffs but he has performed well under pressure, so trading him or attempting to replace him like the talking heads say would be foolish. Either they don’t like the fact that he doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional QB and ignore his rare skill set that no other QB in the league has, or they are just trying to find any reason to throw a fit because Lamar is black.
If I had to blindly guess, it’s probably a smattering of both. He’s black, and his prolific stats during the regular season weren’t as prolific in those first 2 playoff losses, ergo he muuuust be unable to perform in crunch time. If I was to give them any credence, Tony Romo, Peyton Manning, and Andy Dalton all got the same treatment. But. I don’t think I ever heard fans looking to replace those guys after only 3 playoff games.
The “can’t win in the playoffs” is such a bullshit label. Only one QB wins the playoffs any given year, and it’s usually Tom Brady. The playoffs are hard and need team efforts. You need a guy who can consistently reach the playoffs and build the team around him.
I agree. Even though I hate Aaron Rodgers and love laughing at how often his teams lose in the playoffs, it’s not entirely fair to say his performance is the issue. He has still performed well in a lot of the game in which they lost. It’s almost weird how a team making it to the playoffs and losing is seen as more pathetic than a team that can’t even make the playoffs because it’s so bad.
Oh, yeah Lamar is absolutely horrible QB, but because the Ravens seem like such fine people, I think that my Pats would be happy to help take him off their hands.
(In case it’s not glaringly obvious, this is a joke… well, except the sentiment that I wouldn’t mind the Ravens in a moment of Grumblelord-conjured lunacy trade him for a conditional 6th, but I’m pretty sure every other franchise would love him as well)
Seriously, though – from what I saw of the so-called playoff choking (though admitedly mostly highlights, not the full game), it looked like the game prep seemed off, which is more of a team/coaching-staff wide issue. It’s a bit like the Packers of late – even with generational talent at the helm, you need proper support structure around, because high-end talent can take you only so far (as utree’s descent into madness Steelers vids seem to indicate)
Blargh, anyone know where the edit function is hidden, because after rewording my ramble^, I too many mistakes for comfort (one of the reasons why I should probably never comment without a caffeine drip to keep me at least marginally coherent)
Harbaugh’s single biggest weakness as a coach is that, when he goes up against a team his scheme isn’t designed to handle, he plays into their game instead of trying to force them to play his game. Like, against the Chiefs, instead of trying to play ball control and limiting the amount of time the Chiefs have on offense to hold the score down (something you can do pretty easily with a good running game and short, soft passes) he tends to force his offense uptempo, which they can do, but not as well as the Chiefs can.
I’m a Browns fan, but I’ve got a dedicated group of friends from around the AFCN and to us the “Lamar Jackson is a Running Back” thing is just another media creation that we make jokes about, like the OBJ trade rumors. Dude’s a baller and having two and a half good quarterbacks in the division for the next ten years (RIP Joe Burrow’s knees) is gonna be fun.
I love Josh Allen. That much is clear from my username. Anyone who says he’s clearly better than Lamar is an idiot. If Lamar had his WR’s and protection the Ravens would have demolished the league last year.
Yeah it’s hard to ignore that for every stride Josh Allen made last year as a passer, he also got Stefon Diggs, and that shit matters
Oh do not pull that shit. Josh Allen reworked his mechanics. He became more consistent with his delivery and that was not something Stefon Diggs or even fucking Jerry Rice could help him with.
Did I not say that Allen made strides as a passer or that Diggs was everything? No, I did not, don’t get mad at something that wasn’t there
Lamar has not exactly set the world on fire with his arm, but his weapons have been…..subpar to say the least. I think people don’t consider the players around QBs enough. Tom Brady looked sort of good again because he was throwing to 2-3 hall of famers (in terms of talent anyways, off-field is another story). Jared Goff still put up okayish numbers with that team around him. Meanwhile in Miami, everyone calls Tua a bust while he was throwing to Devontae Parker and 4 of the team’s janitors.
About the on legit complaint I can see anyone making about a heavy running QB like Lamar Jackson is that it opens him up to increased chances of injury. We’ve certainly seen that with QBs that have similar styles (Cam Newton, RGIII, etc.). On top if that, if they are lackluster throwers, that also doesn’t bode well if age and/or injury reduces their ability to run. Some of them have been able to make the transition though (Randall Cunningham with the Vikings comes to mind, although lobbing it to peak Randy Moss certainly helps there). Granted, it’s been so long since I’ve seen Randall play with the Eagles that I don’t remember how good a thrower vs. runner he was back then. I don’t remember the Eagles having too many designed runs with him, though, but I could be wrong.
Still, if what he does works, I say keep doing it (full disclosure, I’m not a Ravens fan but I’m trying to be objective).
The longevity thing is a legit concern but that’s still at least 3 years down the road and the Packers showed why taking someone for three years from now is completely asinine.
I’m off the opinion that they didn’t draft Jordan Love that day, they drafted Motivated And Fucking Angry Aaron Rodgers, who is an extremely effective football player.
It instantly made him win MVP, and I really like to believe that someone’s playing emotional 4-D chess over there just to reestablish the chip on that guy’s shoulder that transforms into a nuclear superpower.
The Eagles didn’t have anything designed for Randall, because both Buddy and Kotite were idiots (albeit in different ways). Buddy’s philosophy was “Randall, go do whatever you want, let the defense handle everything else.” Kotite still thought it was the 1960s, and tried to craft an offense like that, including trying to make Randall a stand-in-the-pocket passer. The fact that he was able to do what he did regardless is complement to his talent.
And while he might not have been the best at shorter throws, Randall was a decent passer when he actually wanted to be.
I knew someone that is a massive Lamar Jackson hater and I could never quite understand where they were coming from, but they tried to make reasonable enough arguments, and I sort of understood a couple of the points that they made. There was one argument, however, that stuck out as particularly outrageous, and I’m wondering if you’ve encountered it before.
They genuinely tried to argue that Lamar Jackson did not deserve MVP in 2019. Why, you ask? Because he wasn’t the best QB.
Forget the fact that he led the league in TD passes, TD% and QBR while finishing 3rd overall in passer rating, 2nd in EPA/play, 2nd in DVOA and 5th in DYAR, he was 22nd in yards and 26th in passing attempts! According to this person, that disqualified him from being considered MVP.
Let’s just say a lot of people in that group were baffled by that argument.
I agree that he shouldn’t have won MVP that year , and that’s because the award is Most Valuable Player, not best player. No one was more valuable in 2019 than Russell Wilson
“Teddy Bridgewater is one of the top QB prospects in the draft, yet I’ve seen him get compared to Vick and Wilson and Cam, when he does not play like them. He’s a pocket passer. It happened with Geno too. Every black QB makes plays with his feet and can run! Don’t you get it? I mean, so can Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger and Tony Romo, but when they do it it’s not athletic but scrappy.
It’s just kind of depressing”
The words of dave are just accurate
.
I feel Dave is perpetuating that stereotype. The only person I’ve seen even do a “racial” QB style in the last couple years was Stephen A Smith with Dwayne Haskins.
Definitely not a Lamar hater, but I can’t blame WRs for not wanting to play with the guy. During his rookie year (so take it with a big grain of salt), the top 3 receivers (Brown, Crabtree and Snead) were on pace for 1,200, 1,000, and 800 yards seasons respectively with Flacco under center. Afterwards Lamar took over they combined for something like 300 yards for the rest of the season. I just don’t buy into the narrative that he has terrible receivers, but he doesn’t do anything to elevate those receivers either.
As a Texans fan (by birth) absolutely love that in something completely unrelated to our team, how awful we now are resurfaces. David Culley, our new head coach, was the WR Coach last season in Baltimore. They were awful as you mentioned. He ALSO was the QB coach in Buffalo during Josh Allen’s rookie year! Again as you alluded to, he improved a lot as a passer – maybe because there was nowhere to go but up from Culley’s time with him.
Not gonna lie, I thought Lamar would struggle his first few seasons while finding his way. He landed in the perfect situation for him. He made me eat crow and made me a believer. Yes he has his faults. But for all the haters, he is 24 and has a league MVP and he’s got room to grow. When the dude bottoms out for a season or two, then the conversation that he’s not the guy can begin. Until then, even if I don’t like the Ravens, Jackson is fun to watch.
I feel like Lamar isn’t a good passer. He can definitely improve his game like Josh Allen did, but his elite running ability does a really good job at hiding his passing flaws. Unless the receiver is wide open or it’s a checkdown, Lamar either can’t or won’t throw it. They talk all about “Big Truss” but that clearly doesn’t apply to the passing game. When the run game is stopped, the offense is stopped. A quality passer can open the run game with his arm. Lamar can’t. One positive sign of development is he no longer has the clutch factor of Tony Romo at least
Well you must be a gay racist who is also stupid and in the KKK! That’s the only possible conclusion!
I feel like a really major part of this is that Greg Roman is running that offense. Literally every stop he’s had, the teams have great running games and poor passing attacks. Sure, Lamjax isn’t the BEST thrower, but he’s more than good enough. I’m a Browns fan, too, so I really wish he was as bad as you say.
Michael Vick may have poisoned the well.
Lamar Jackson Blows. He is Tim Tebow with a longer career. They both have the same number of playoff wins too.
I just want to say thanks to Dave for hyperlinking “The Time Traveler”, which are my two favorite comics EVER.
Makes me laugh every time….
I was so frustrated when the Pats traded down with Baltimore and didn’t take Jackson. I could see Brady and Belichick coming to want different directions and for Jackson to be there would’ve been like in Madden, like if Newton on the Pats hypothetically worked out last year. Imagine Jackson slinging it all sorts of ways while running 15 designed runs a game. What a waste… And the year before they blew a pick on butter fingers Michel
They passed on him twice and I hated it so much because I really, really wanted Jackson in that draft. I get that Brady was coming off of an MVP season but man, it would have been great to have Jackson learning under him for a couple of seasons. Would have made the transition less painful.
Ravens fan here. When Lamar was drafted, I hated everything about it. Worst pick ever. We didn’t need him. Flacco needed a better Offensive Coordinator. Lamar was used as a gadget player, and it wasn’t great. Then Flacco got hurt, and Lamar was like Tebow. He won games, but was AWFUL throwing the football. Not sustainable long term.
I hated it even more when Joe was traded away the next offseason. The new season started, and Lamar started dropping dimes!! Massive change in his throwing game, with no decrease in his running game!! What changed? He was interviewed and said that the footballs in college were just a tad smaller than the footballs in the NFL, and he hadn’t got used to it in Year 1. It makes sense. He was a backup not getting as many reps.
By game 2 of year 2, I did a 180 and became a full believer in Lamar Jackson’s physical skill set. As for decision making, I’ve counted maybe 5 boneheaded plays since the start of year 2 (unfortunately a couple came in playoff games). Still, for a guy as young as him to make that few boneheaded plays, while playing light out the majority of the time is unreal. And he’s only gonna get better!
I understand the Lamar haters of year 1. But your brain is broke if you think the Ravens (or nearly every team in the league) would be better off without him.
As always, great comic and analysis, Dave.
The EXACT. SAME. THING. happened in Carolina with Cam Newton, even at his peak in 2015.
The word Buffoon is severely underused, and entirely apt in this context.
Living here in Louisville and getting his insane skills first hand, I was so thrilled when he dropped to the 30th in the draft, and I knew that the Pats and Browns both had QBs, I was so ready as a Giants fan to grab him, have Saquon and him…. then the Ravens ran in and got him and my life hasn’t felt as good since.
It really is qwhite interesting, isn’t it?
My issue with Jackson is that we have seen Greg Roman making a running qb be mvp level before and then teams adapted and his stats fell off hard. We also saw a second case of a qb who was seen as a running qb but despite having a terrible offensive line becoming a very good passer over time however he was showing indicators of it even during his rookie year which would be Russell Wilson who had his coming out party against the Falcons in what would have been a comeback for the ages if the nascent lob could have held for 30 seconds.
Now Jackson could still go the Wilson route that could definitely happen but right now I’m seeing a qb who will struggle following teams adapting to Roman’s O it’s started to happen somewhat but teams laced the pieces. The Browns just got one of them in JOK who should serve as both a great spy and a good deterrent to Baltimore’s 47 tight ends. It will be interesting to see what happens now that he has stacked weapons outside tight end.
Darnold has shown some flashes but imo the Jets got way too much for him. I can see rolling the dice on him for like a fifth but to get a second fourth and sixth back is nuts. It’s not necessarily skin color though Winston is getting another shot despite being unable to distinguish his team from the opposing team it’s more about being a super high draft pick. You have to be truly awful to get booted from the NFL completely as a high draft pick qb as in Ryan Leaf/Jamarcus level.
I believe that while Jackson is a tier one offensive weapon he currently isn’t a tier one passer now if teams can’t deal with the new wrinkles in Roman’s system that might be fine. However to win a super bowl I think he will have to evolve as a passer.
Just my two cents.
Its obviously nothing to do with racism but everything to do with his style of play. I think its outrageous to accuse fans of racism when the league is 60% black. If it was racism, they wouldn’t watch! That makes no sense.
Part of being a good QB is passing – I think Lamar has somethings to go on that. Which is why people question his play. Nothing to do with racism, of course.
Man I hope you aren’t serious and I just read the comment wrong, “Fans wouldn’t watch the NFL if it was racism” might straight up be the worst “racism isn’t an issue” take I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of them, especially in the last year, where the level of racism in the country got even more exposed
It’s not a question if racism plays a part, it’s just a matter of to what degree it plays a part