size, speed, agility and strength it takes to do that in real time in anything other than a video game.
Ah, to be 22 again…
Lamar Jackson has in the last four weeks become the biggest star in the National Football League.
The Revolution isn’t coming.
It is here.
If you have listened to my tales at WNST-AM 1570 or anywhere I converse professionally and for your pleasure on the internet, you’ve probably heard the story about me nodding off at approximately 11:25 p.m. on the third Thursday of last April when I awakened a little later to see Lamar Jackson strolling across the stage in a green jacket to a handshake from Roger Goodell and his “Bleedat” moment.
Who among us really believed that after Hayden Hurst was selected that it wasn’t time to go to sleep on a Thursday night in April?
You can believe that’s the last time I will ever fall asleep on Lamar Demeatrice Jackson Jr.
And much like every defensive coordinator coming down the line over the next month –from Houston to Los Angeles, from San Francisco to Buffalo – there will be no sleep and an endless search for an answer to “The Problem” (as Bill Belichick called him before he was rolled by him in Baltimore).
Lamarvelous. Houdini. The Thriller. Mr. Jackson.
They give you nicknames when you moonwalk and no one has ever seen it before.
Jackson’s ability to improve his footwork, improve his film study, improve his passing accuracy and communication with his teammates, improve his judgment with getting down and remaining safe have all been simply off the charts in growth thus far.
You don’t have two “perfect” QB rating games in the NFL by accident.
We always say the game will “catch up” to any superstar.
And we always like to label various guys in various sports “game changers” or “special” and then here comes Lamar Jackson to the Baltimore Ravens.
And we had Ray Lewis around here…
Every team passed on him, too, because they couldn’t figure out how to use him.
And in 2018 no other team was ready to throw away conventional NFL “Bill Walsh-era” football and redesign the game to go “backward” with college concepts that NFL schemes can’t account for over four plays and 30 feet with a guy who has otherworldly physical abilities at this age and time.
The brilliance in this continues to be the Ravens’ offense deadly down and distance domination and their ability to extend drives and end games inside of three hours.
We will be asking more questions about the upcoming playoff-caliber defenses – and the potential answers and solutions with Aaron Donald and Nick Bosa, etc. – in the coming weeks.
The Ravens defense needs to provide its own answers to DeShaun Watson and Jared Goff and Jimmy Garrapolo before the turkey arrives and the pumpkin pie bakes into a bye week.
But the dressing is in the oven and the dessert of January football feels real in the land of pleasant living.
I can get used to the thrill of this winning thing.
