Ravens HC John Harbaugh: Lamar Jackson can endupbeing the finest QB in NFL history

Lamar Jackson missedouton the start of training camp duetothefactthat of an disease.

Then Baltimore coach John Harbaugh provided a bit of a speech, talking up his star quarterback at the end of his session with pressreporters.

Following the Ravens’ initially full-squad practice of camp, Harbaugh spoke for more than 2 straight minutes about Jackson and the future — and in doing so made it rather clear what the group’s hopes and expectations are.

“The vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to endedupbeing and be understood and be acknowledged as the biggest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League,” Harbaugh stated. “That’s the vision. It’s going to takeplace by Lamar, his work principles and his dazzling skill, by all of us putting into that effort, together as a group, teameffort, and by the grace of God and God’s goodwill. That’s how it’s going to occur. And I think it like we’ve currently seen it.”

Moments earlier, Harbaugh had talked about some of the group’s styles goinginto the 2024 season: vision, requirements — and the capability to fulfill and raise the requirement. The Ravens set the bar quite high last season with a dominant routine season. Jackson won his 2nd MVP award. But Baltimore lost in the AFC champion videogame to Kansas City, whose own quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, has put together an remarkable résumé in the dispute over the biggest quarterback of all time.

So Jackson still dealswith his share of critics.

“I read the things. I see the guys state what they state on the programs. At least I get clips of them duetothefactthat they come up on your phone,” Harbaugh stated. “There’s a lot of fantastic things stated about Lamar, however there’s a lot of things that’s stated that you got to simply scratch your head about and kind of question, what’s that individual even believing? But we take it personally.

“Lamar’s a guy, all his life, Lamar Jackson hasactually been a guy who’s been answering those exactsame concerns. I’m talking about giventhat he was a kid, junior high, high school, college, the draft, the success he’s had in the National Football League — and it still comes up.”

Harbaugh’s remarks came throughout as both a bold defense of his franchise quarterback — and possibly a bit of tone setting about what the Ravens may requirement from Jackson if they’re going to reach a Super Bowl.

“He’s got a development stateofmind. He’s going to get muchbetter and muchbetter, no doubt. But what does he have to do to show himself to some individuals, ideal?” Harbaugh stated. “We’ve constantly had a vision for Lamar Jackson, and it began with Lamar’s vision and his mother’s vision when he stated he was going to be a quarterback. … We purchased into that. We accepted it. We developed an offense for it in ‘19. We’re structure another offense for it in ‘23 and ’24, going forward, best? The next version of our offense, around Lamar Jackson.”

Harbaugh stated Jackson began getting ill Saturday. The coach didn’t offer a timeline for his return to practice. Linebacker Asida Isaac (hamstring), defensive back T.J. Tampa (sports hernia) and running back Keaton Mitchell (knee) were missing Sunday as well.

The Ravens play in the NFL’s season opener at Kansas City on Sept. 5.

Reporting by The Associated Press. 

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