{"id":860642,"date":"2026-04-08T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860642\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:00:42","slug":"in-absence-of-new-contract-ravens-lamar-jackson-shows-up-for-new-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860642\/","title":{"rendered":"In Absence Of New Contract, Ravens’ Lamar Jackson Shows Up For New Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the absence of a new contract, Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson showed up for his new coach<\/a>, Jesse Minter. Joining most of the rest of the veterans, he reported for the first day of Phase 1 of offseason activities. While right now there is very little involved, his presence is still significant.<\/p>\n

This offseason, the Ravens fired longtime HC John Harbaugh, with whom it seemed Lamar Jackson hadn\u2019t always seen eye to eye. That seemed especially evident last year, regardless of Jackson\u2019s injuries hindering their success. What\u2019s more, Jackson hasn\u2019t always been a steady presence in such offseason activities, making his appearance even more notable.<\/p>\n

While Lamar Jackson is under contract through 2027, the Ravens wanted to sign him to an extension now. That was partly because they wanted the cap relief a new deal could have provided. They admitted they ran out of time<\/a>, however, and needed to restructure his remaining contract. They still hope to work out an extension this offseason, but he seems willing to work while he waits.<\/p>\n

According to the Ravens themselves, Jackson was pretty involved in their new coaching search that landed in Jesse Minter. In Declan Doyle, he also has the youngest offensive coordinator in the league. Doyle is only about a year older than him, in fact.<\/p>\n

Minter and the Ravens want to get Jackson and Doyle on the same page as soon as humanly possible. Showing up now is a part of that, as they are already beginning classroom work. That is the only interaction permitted between players and coaches in the first phase of the offseason program, anyway.<\/p>\n

Earlier this offseason, the Ravens\u2019 new offensive coordinator spoke honestly about Lamar Jackson. \u201cWhen you watch the tape, there\u2019s not really any throws that he can\u2019t make\u201d, he said<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s very arm talented. I think there\u2019s even a higher ceiling to his game. You\u2019re looking at a guy that\u2019s been the MVP twice. And yet I still think just like all our guys, he still has room to grow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jackson missed four games for the Ravens last year, going 6-7 in the ones he started. In all, he finished 192-for-302 for 2,549 yards with 21 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. He rushed for only 349 yards, scoring 2 touchdowns with his feet but fumbling 7 times.<\/p>\n

Just a year prior, Jackson had arguably the best season of his career. Throwing for 4,172 yards with 41 touchdowns to 4 interceptions, he frankly should have won the NFL MVP Award over Josh Allen, which would have been his third overall and second in as many years.<\/p>\n

In other words, the Ravens understand the incredible talent they have in Lamar Jackson. The changes they made this offseason, including firing Harbaugh, were driven by the desire to maximize this resource while they still can. Jackson just turned 29 in January, so he has several years left, at a minimum.<\/p>\n

But his physical skills will begin to diminish. If they don\u2019t evolve his game, he could lose his potency sooner rather than later. I don\u2019t know that Declan Doyle was brought in to do just that, the way the Steelers brought in Todd Haley to extend Ben Roethlisberger\u2019s career, but that is the end game all the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the absence of a new contract, Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson showed up for his new coach,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,895,6,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-860642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-lamar-jackson","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-ravens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116368512331723362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}