AWOL at OTA’s

For nearly two years the Ravens tried to negotiate a deal with Lamar Jackson. The contract became bigger than the team. Lamar held tight to what he believed his market value to be while the Ravens steadfastly maintained that the targeted benchmark of Lamar’s camp – Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed $230M deal, was nothing more than an outlier.

Debate ensued between the sides and undeniably among the fan base. Some fans believed that Lamar wasn’t worth the money he yearned for while others defended him as a generational talent whose performance was sabotaged by an archaic offensive architect and a wide receiver corps that was among the league’s worst. To put the situation in perspective, it wasn’t altogether different than your 85-year old grandmother owning a Maserati to drive during her weekly visits to grocery store. You get the drift…

But after adopting a better late than never approach, the Ravens replaced offensive coordinator Greg Roman with Todd Monken, a coach who arrives with a reputation for maximizing offensive assets; for taking unique skillsets and placing them in positions to succeed. The Ravens didn’t stop there and vowed to retool the wide receiver room. And they have.

Months later, there was a contractual breakthrough. The painfully frustrating negotiating stalemate that held the franchise hostage this offseason had come to an end. Lamar Jackson agreed to a new deal, finally, and will be the team’s quarterback for at least the next 5 seasons. Consequently, Lamar has become the game’s highest paid player on a per annum basis.

So now there’s revived hope for 2023. With one signature stroke, the Ravens elevated from a 2023 question mark to a Super Bowl contender. A rejuvenated Lamar paired with a healthy stable of running backs, a bolstered set of pass catchers and an offensive mind to unleash the group’s potential, could make the Ravens offense more dynamic, more explosive and far less one-dimensional. It could also catapult the club beyond the Divisional Round of the postseason dance.

The pieces seem to be coming together.

But…

Yesterday, during the team’s voluntary OTA’s, Lamar was a no-show. A brand new offense with new players really needs its franchise quarterback to be firmly entrenched at the epicenter of the offensive development. They need to play fast and be multi-faceted. But to accomplish that, there needs to be a mastery of the offensive design in order to unleash its potential. And it starts with the starting signal caller.

Yet despite the new contract, despite all of the uncertainty of Lamar’s injuries towards the end of the 2022 season, despite the trade demands, despite the rumored locker room repair that starts with Lamar, the enigmatic quarterback opted not to participate in voluntary practices. He opted not to put all of this noise to bed.

Even if his knee isn’t 100% (he stated that it’s good to go), why not be in attendance? Why not mend any fences with teammates that are partially frayed? Why not be by Todd Monken’s side to soak up and marinate in that new offense and its accompanying nomenclature in order to help it realize its innate ability?

Instead, Lamar was AWOL.

Instead, he took an opportunity to learn, to get better and discarded it.

Instead, he allowed the narrative that he’s a me-guy and not a team-guy to breathe.

I get that these practices are voluntary. But we’re talking about the game’s highest paid player who just signed a contract that still has damp ink.

Do you think Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow or Josh Allen would have done the same?

[Related Article: Ravens Offense Has Done a 540]

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