Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh opened training camp for the Ravens by defending his franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson in an impassioned speech against criticism directed at the NFL’s reigning Most Valuable Player for not reaching the Super Bowl.
Earlier this year, Jackson, 27, became the NFL’s youngest two-time NFL MVP since the AFL merger.
“There’s a lot of great things said about Lamar, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s said that you just got to scratch your head about and kind of wonder, ‘What’s that person even thinking?'” Harbaugh said, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “But we take it personally.”
Jackson’s stats jump off the page as since 2018 he has the second-best regular-season record in the league at 58-19 (.753), leading Baltimore to the NFL’s best records in 2019 (14-2) and 2023 (13-4).
However, the regular season success that Jackson enjoyed didn’t translate to playoff success, as he has lost in four of his six career playoff games including a 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game.
In that game, Jackson Jackson completed 54% of his passes (20-of-37) and had two costly turnovers.
“All his life, Lamar Jackson has been a guy who’s been answering those same questions,” Harbaugh continued. “I’m talking about since he was a kid. Junior high, high school, college, the draft. The success he’s had in the [NFL], again, it still comes up.
“OK, now he’s still growing. He’s got a growth mindset. He’s going to get better and better, no doubt. But what does he have to do to prove himself to some people? Right?”
“The vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League,” Harbaugh said. “It’s going to happen by Lamar, his work ethic and his brilliant talent, by all of us pouring into that effort together as a team and by the grace of God and God’s goodwill.”
Jackson wasn’t around to hear his coach’s speech as he was sent home by the team’s doctors with an illness prior to Sunday’s practice.
“He just started getting sick [Saturday] midday in the meetings [and] it got kind of not good,” Harbaugh said of Jackson’s illness. “So, he tried to get in today and get rest and then get fluids and things. It just wasn’t good.”
