Just when the Ravens’ season was on the line and they were on the verge of being eliminated from the playoff race, they responded with two straight wins. With Joe Flacco sidelined with a hip injury, rookie Lamar Jackson slid in as the starter and beat the Bengals and Raiders in his first two career starts. Now Ravens coach John Harbaugh isn’t ready to commit to Flacco getting his job back when he’s healthy, according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com.
“Whether the decision has been made or not, it’s not important for anybody to know but us. If I decide to do it one way or another, I don’t want our opponent to know. So, I’m probably not going to announce it for obvious reasons, just to make it tough for our opponent” Harbaugh was quote as saying.
If Harbaugh was going to give Flacco the job back, he probably would’ve continued to say as much, and the fact that he was so non-committal would seem to indicate he’d prefer to stick with Jackson. It would be pretty hard for Harbaugh to take it away from Jackson now, so we should probably tentatively expect to continue to see Jackson make starts.
Harbaugh isn’t in any position to play for the future, so whatever decision he makes will be the one he feels like gives the team the best chance to win. Harbaugh is on an extremely hot seat, and it was reported earlier today that Ravens players were expecting him to be fired if the team didn’t make the playoffs. Jackson has flashed electrifying talent, but has also struggled as a passer at time. They’ve won both his starts, but they’ve come against two of the worst defenses in the league. It’s possible the team will go back to Flacco as they prepare to play a much tougher slate of defenses, but it’s also looking highly possible that we’ve seen the end of the Joe Flacco-era in Baltimore.
Good
Trade Flacco to Washington.
Easily the dumbest comment I’ve read on the site, 1. Trade deadline passed like 3 weeks ago 2. Why on earth would the Redskins pay huge money for Flacco and Smith when they wouldn’t pay Cousins? Flacco’s contract makes him untradable.
Smith’s injury isn’t career-threatening so there’s not a need there. I think the more likely scenario (if he’s not back in Baltimore) is him just getting cut and ending up as a bridge for a rebuilding team that doesn’t already have a potential long-term guy.
The Dolphins, Raiders (if they trade Carr), Giants, Bucs, and Broncos would fit that if any of them cut bait with the expensive QBs they already have.
I’m pretty sure both you guys failed to read the sarcasm of the comment, LOL.
I still don’t see it
Lamar Jackson is still raw. In the past two games Jackson has… 3 interceptions, 2 fumbles, and 328 passing yard.
Sure, he can extend plays with his legs. But even then he’s prone to errors.
On top of that, Jackson has led them to wins over the Bengals, who are playing like they gave up in the season a month ago and have a terrible defense, and the Raiders, one of the only teams whose defense might be worse than Cincy. If Jackson leads the Ravens to a win over a quality opponent, then maybe I start drinking that Kool Aid. Until then, I’m not convinced.
Everyone acting like Flacco has never thrown an interception before or fumbled. How many times have we played horrible teams with Flacco and lost. Look even with Flacco as starter the Ravens wont make the playoffs abd if they do, wont go very far. Harbaugh is gone at the end of the season and the fact that they can cut Flacco at seasons end without taking a cap hit, Flacco will be gone. Staying with Lamar is the better option especially since he is the future starter. He is a rookie so of course he is going to make mistakes and those ints were deflected. Lamar will get better the more he plays. Hell he has already made the running game better. Just deal with the fact that Flacco is done. Im glad he is. Tired of all the “he is elite” crap. Sorry he is avg at best, and i would know because im in Baltimore and had to watch him every week.
I agree, get rid of that S.B winning QB.
John Brown is rooting for Flacco back.
Le’Veon Bell and Flacco in Oakland/NYJ.
No way will the Jets touch Flacco when they already drafted Darnold as their future franchise QB… LeVeon I can see tho
Hey, we’re talking about the Bengals and Raiders defenses here. The Orioles probably have pitchers that could beat these clowns.
Let’s not pretend that their last 2 wins were against playoff caliber teams
ESPN is already overreacting to Lamar Jackson. The dude is a pretty bad QB, but good RB. Granted it is a VERY small sample size, he has a 73.1 passer rating and a 39.1 QBR. And those numbers went DOWN in his pathetic performance in yesterday’s win. Yes, he ran for 71 yards on 11 carries with a TD…… but threw for only 178 yards completing 56% of his passes, tossing 2 INTs and 1 TD pass. You want to know what this statline sounds like to me? Tim Tebow. EVERYONE ragged on how horrible a QB Tebow was and were seemingly counting down the days until he was out of the NFL. Jackson performs WORSE and everyone is high as a kite on the guy….. why. I can see it now. When he’s the Ravens QB next year and SUCK HORRIBLY everyone is going to be shocked. I’m always puzzled as to why the media gets so irrationally high on certain players when the numbers indicate they aren’t that great. The last player I can recall that was way overhyped like this was Trent Richardson. In Richardson his numbers looked decent for a Rookie. 11 rushing TDs, 950 yards, 51 receptions, 367 receiving yards, and 1 receiving TD on a typically bad Browns team. But what people ignored was his 3.6 yards per carry stat. NO ONE will last in the NFL averaging three and a half yards per carry….. no one. And Richardson most definitely did not last. The next year everyone (read as the dumb media) was “shocked” he was underperforming in his sophomore year. Jackson IMO is going to follow suit. A dude with a 70something passer rating is complete trash in today’s NFL when a QB isn’t considered even good until he posts a 90+ passer rating (thanks to the outlawing of actual defense). I mean it is pretty frigin simple nowadays to post stellar QB numbers in today’s league, and Jackson is struggling…. mightily. I mean people have finally realized how mediocre Eli Manning is (FYI….. he’s throwing to pretty much his career numbers, he just doesn’t have a stellar team around him like he did in those 2 super bowls….. Eli Manning has ALWAYS = Jay Cutler…. and everyone seemed to love to hate on Jay Cutler). That said, Eli Manning despite being mediocre at best is on pace for 20 TDs, 10 INTs, and 4500 passing yards…. FORTY FIVE HUNDRED!!!! That’s “mediocre” nowadays. Jackson value lives and dies with his rushing ability and if anyone has learned anything in the last decade or 2 – scrambling QBs seemingly never pan out. Mainly because defenses can just go into man coverage and keep the LBs near the line to contain the QB. Once teams start getting enough tape on a scrambling QB they usually die off pretty quick.
I’m just waiting for when the media looks like the retards they are when Jackson starts losing games, and then start saying “he needs to get better at throwing the ball.” Crap they should be realizing now already. I mean ESPN is saying “Jackson is going to save Harbaugh’s job.” Why? Because he beat two crappy teams in the Bengals and Raiders? BARELY beating the Bengals at that……. and then beating a 2-8, now 2-9 team in the Raiders. Wow. What a champion, haha. The Ravens need to move on from Flacco. A dude who probably should’ve been on a different team years ago, but he’s been riding the lucky SB he won a few years ago – over another mediocre QB led team in the 49ers (Kaepernick). But if Baltimore thinks Jackson is the clear successor to Flacco and will have this team competing for the playoffs next year and beyond is VERY optimistic IMO. And if he does manage to barely get by solely based on his running ability it’s only a matter of time before he gets injured…. a la RG3. Unlike RG3 though Jackson has shown little actual QB skills.
IMO….. the Ravens are entering QB hell. If the Bucs release Winston after this season, I would be jumping on him to be Jackson’s backup for insurance purposes…. because they’ll need it once they realize tehy can’t win games with a QB who can’t complete 60% of his passes and only throws for maybe… MAYBE 200 yards at best a game AND throws as many INTs as he does TDs.
Again, it’s early on Jackson, but in his 2 starts he’s played against scrub teams and didn’t exactly light it up. People are acting like he’s the second coming of Michael Vick….. another overrated QB, haha. IMO the Ravens would be better off picking up a new QB in free agency as a stop gap, draft a better QB come draft time, and convert Jackson into a RB. It’s what the Falcons should’ve done with Vick and they probably would’ve had a Super Bowl in their franchise history. But they didn’t and stuck with a mediocre/bad QB in Vick who could run….. and won nothing. My prediction….. the Ravens will have the same fate for the next 5-6 years.
And that is this outsider’s opinion. And no, before the meatheads say it, I am most definitely not jealous of the Ravens for having a 70 something passer rating QB. I’m not even an AFC fan. So don’t think I’m some rival fan talking trash about your bad QB. I’m just looking at the numbers…. and they are hardly intimidating.
Flacco just hasn’t been good for too long