Lamar Jackson Doesn't Care What Critics Say About Coming Up Short in Playoffs
From the moment he was drafted, Lamar Jackson has been obsessed with leading the Ravens to the Super Bowl. He doesn't need extra motivation from his critics.
During Jackson's appearance on Mad Dog Sports Radio, he was asked if he is driven to succeed by criticism of his postseason performance.
"I'm motivating myself because I know what I want to do at the end of the day," Jackson said. "Those guys have their time. I really don't care what the criticism is, what the critics say, because, at the end of the day, I just came off a season-ending injury the year before and we made it all the way to the AFC [championship game] in the new system [last season]. It's nothing to be down on myself, my teammates, or anything like that because we made it far.
"We're getting closer, I'll say that. We've just got to keep going, and God's will, we'll be there. That's our goal. We criticize ourselves more than anyone else, so what people say on the outside, that's just their take. They can believe what they want to believe but we know what we want. We know what we're striving for."
Jackson understands that the criticism goes with the territory when you're a two-time league MVP. Quarterbacks of his caliber are ultimately judged by how many championships they win.
It's important to remember that Jackson is still only 27. First-ballot Hall of Famer Peyton Manning lost his first three playoff games before winning one at 27. He didn't win the Super Bowl until he was 30.
Jackson is 2-4 in the playoffs, but he was outstanding in the Ravens' 34-10 win over the Houston Texans in the divisional round last January, as he threw two touchdowns passes and ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns.
Odafe Oweh Named Ravens' Most Likely First-Time Pro Bowler
Odafe Oweh was one of the biggest standouts at training camp. Showing quick burst off the edge, Oweh harassed quarterbacks so much that coaches had to reign him in.
It's clear that Oweh is poised to take a big leap in his fourth season, and NFL.com’s Kevin Patra believes he is the Ravens' leading candidate to be a first-time Pro Bowler in 2024.
"The Ravens boast Pro Bowlers up and down the roster, but Oweh, a former first-rounder, is still looking for his breakout season," Patra wrote. "The 25-year-old edge rusher is coming off a five-sack campaign in which he missed four games with an ankle injury. At 6-foot-5, Oweh boasts the quickness and agility to get around the edge and, at times, flashes dominant playmaking ability. The key will be staying healthy and finding consistency over 17 games. With Jadeveon Clowney gone and questions about the options behind the starting crew, Oweh should see the reps to at least double last year's sack output."
Rashod Bateman Among Ravens Players Poised for Breakout Season
Oweh isn't the only Raven with breakout potential. The Baltimore Banner's Jonas Shaffer identified several other players who could fit the bill. Here's a look at three of them:
WR Rashod Bateman
"The 2021 first-round pick missed about a week of practice this month with an apparent injury to his midsection, but when healthy, he's been perhaps the Ravens' most exciting wide receiver in camp. Bateman is finally earning more targets from quarterback Lamar Jackson — though the connection still needs some work — and he's shown an ability to attack every area of the field and win contested catches. Zay Flowers will enter the season as the team's top wideout, but Bateman might have more potential."
OLB David Ojabo
"After a torn Achilles tendon wiped out most of Ojabo's rookie year and a torn ACL ended his last season in September, the 2022 second-round pick is still looking for a breakout performance. But Ojabo might be closer than ever, because he's healthier than he's been in a while. After Tuesday's practice, the Ravens' last open session of training camp in Owings Mills, he pronounced himself 100% healthy."
TE Isaiah Likely
"Maybe no one in Baltimore has had a better summer. Likely has built on his white-hot finish to last season with a blue-chip performance in camp, where he's emerged as both a safety blanket and big-play threat for Jackson. Maybe the only thing more impressive than Likely's one-handed catches has been his Mark Andrews-esque consistency and motor. If coordinator Todd Monken can find a way to weaponize both in two-tight-end sets this season, the Ravens' passing attack should be hard to stop."
Pundit Says Ravens Are One of the Teams Most Likely to Decline This Season
The Ravens had the NFL's best regular-season record (13-4) and point differential (plus-203) last season, and their DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) was the fifth-best by any team going back through 1981.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell doesn't think the Ravens can attain that same level of success, as they were among the five teams he predicted will decline in 2024.
"The Ravens weren't secretly a bad team last season, and while anything's possible, we shouldn't project them to fall below .500," Barnwell wrote. "A lot of things have to go right for a team to be one of the best in history, though, and it's tough to count on those things going right year after year. Throw in a roster that is in transition after the Lamar Jackson contract extension last year and there's enough to be skeptical that Baltimore will reclaim the AFC North again."
Barnwell noted that history shows the odds of the Ravens matching last season's dominance aren't in their favor.
"Even with a full year from Jackson and something close to a vintage season from Derrick Henry, it would be tough for the Ravens to win 13 games in back-to-back years," Barnwell wrote. "Allowing for the move from 16 to 17 games, teams that are this dominant in any given season often struggle to keep up their performances. Go back through 1989 and you'll find that 31% of the teams that won 12 or more games in a given year did so again the following season.
"The question, more realistically, is what the drop-off looks like. Could the Ravens be like the 2023 Chiefs, where they fall to 11 wins and still win their division before getting hot in the playoffs? That's entirely possible. There's also a scenario in which they're the 2023 Bengals, a team that struggled to overcome an outflux of talent, dealt with an injury to their quarterback and ended up shockingly missing the playoffs altogether."
