OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens' gang is back together. That includes their recently extended quarterback, Lamar Jackson.
"It feels great to be out here again," he said. "It feels great to see my guys and seeing everyone work so hard."
Jackson and his teammates were on the field Wednesday for organized team activities, the non-contact practice phase of the off-season which is voluntary for players. For Jackson it is his first time working in Owings Mills since spraining his PCL in early December and signing his new 5-year, $260 million contract last month.
After skipping OTA’s last year, the final year of his previous deal, he said the main reason he is back in late May is:
"New offense. I had to get that down pat. Just want to learn the new offense and get with my guys."
This is the first off-season since 2019 that Lamar has to learn a new playbook, a new offensive scheme. Coordinator Todd Monken is now drawing things up, replacing Greg Roman. So far, Lamar is a fan.
"New offense is smooth. More verbiage than usual. I like it. I’m loving it so far," he said.
Lamar added that Monken is “giving us the keys to the offense”.
"You can change things when you want to. You see the defense, it’s not looking right to you, see some guy blitzing, you might want your receiver to do something different, coach is giving you the free will to do whatever you want to."
Like the ability to use his arm more and take the deep shot.
"Just being able to throw the ball downfield. Running can only take you so far. I feel like with this new era of teams and offenses in the league, I feel like we need that and coach Todd Monken, what I’m seeing in his offense so far, is looking tremendous."
Jackson did not do any team drills on Wednesday, like 7-on-7 or 11-on-11. Head Coach John Harbaugh said they are ramping him up. Jackson said that Harbaugh wants him to be more of a vocal leader heading into his sixth NFL season.
Lamar also said he plans on being at the rest of these OTA practices, which continue for the next couple of weeks, before mandatory mini-camp begins in mid-June.
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