Baltimore Ravens: ESPN analyst puts team on blast over major Lamar Jackson issue | OneFootball

The Baltimore Ravens need to take some blame for the state of their offense without the play of Lamar Jackson, ESPN’s Ryan Clark has claimed.

The Baltimore Ravens must be feeling a little bit of deja vu right now, as they find themselves with a chance of falling foul of the same problems that hampered them towards the end of the 2021 season, and it all revolves around the same player.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson is currently on the sidelines as he recovers from a PCL injury that was meant to see him out of action for 1-3 weeks, and this weekend’s game against the Atlanta Falcons is set to be the third game that he has missed, hinting that things could be even worse than first imagined.

The Ravens are currently sat as the 5th seed in the AFC playoff picture, but Jackson’s injury means that their chances of making it through are hanging by a thread, especially when you consider that the Ravens have a record of 3-6 whenever they are forced to take the field without him.

Are the Baltimore Ravens going to regret their decisions?

This is eerily similar to what happened with them last year, as they started the year 8-3, but they lost the final 6 games, with Jackson missing the final 4 of them through injury. And with Jackson having already thrown for 2,242 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and rushed for an additional 764 yards and 3 touchdowns, it’s clear that the majority of their success goes through him.

And Ryan Clark believes that’s a problem, because it is putting the Ravens in a situation now that they are practically begging for him to be back in the team if they are even going to make the playoffs to begin with.

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up, Clark slammed the Ravens for the fact that they are a totally different team without Jackson on the field and that a lot should have been done when it comes to getting players around him that aren’t so reliant on his play:

Whether it is through having a better backup in place (just look at the San Francisco 49ers and their transition from Trey Lance to Jimmy Garoppolo to Brock Purdy), or by making sure the talent is better, Clark does have a point, and after what happened last year, you would think they might have learned their lesson.

Let’s just hope for them they aren’t made to learn it a second time this year.