BALTIMORE, Md. — Less than 24 hours after such a bitter loss and sudden end to their season, the Ravens held a sort of virtual locker clean out on Sunday as they ready for another long off-season.
The number one concern on everyone’s mind is the health of Lamar Jackson. His teammates said he was feeling fine after suffering a concussion during the 17-3 loss to the Bills. But he was also disappointed following another dismal postseason offensive output.
"It seems like he’s okay, doing alright right now," said fullback Patrick Ricard. "(I) saw him on the plane. It looked like he was doing alright. But, of course he’s upset."
"He was upset. He was pissed off that we didn’t get the win and we didn’t do the things needed to execute and get done," said guard Bradley Bozeman. "I think he’s good. We had a good conversation last night."
"We had a long talk and I know this for a fact, that this off-season is going to be probably the best off-season and we’re going to go to work and we’re going to come back motivated and ready to go," added wide receiver Marquise Brown.
It’s a second straight year that off-season begins after a loss in the divisional round of the playoffs.
#Ravens safety Chuck Clark: "The next step for us is just to finish."
— Shawn Stepner (@StepnerWMAR) January 17, 2021
This 2020 season was different in so many ways. It was affected by COVID-19 and changed by the pandemic. Still, players are proud of how they pushed through.
"Hopefully it won’t be like this again," said cornerback Marlon Humphrey. "It was beauty in the struggle. I’ll say that. If I had to describe it it was beauty in the struggle."
"It was insane and everyone had their obstacles," added Ricard. "For us to have a COVID outbreak in the middle of the season like we did and overcome that…. It’s been a crazy year. That’s for sure. This is a year to remember for everybody regardless of what’s going on."
"Unique, difficult, but in a very strange way highly rewarding," said kicker Justin Tucker.
As for Lamar Jackson’s thoughts, we’ll have to wait for those. Per NFL rules, he is not permitted to do interviews until he is medically cleared from his concussion.
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