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Deadly Accurate Quarterback Comparison: Marcus Mariota

Wow. Ozzie Newsome's final first-round pick will chart a new course for the future of the franchise. Just wow.

There's no big mystery about Lamar Jackson's scouting profile. He's the most gifted quarterback in this class. His college production speaks for itself. He suffers from glaring accuracy lapses which sometimes lead to protracted slumps, but his mechanical issues are easy to spot on film (his feet and body get really wonky when he's missing targets) and should be correctable.

Contrary to much draft prattle, Jackson operated effectively from the pocket and consistently identified second and sometimes third reads. The Louisville offense he ran was no more gimmicky than any other modern college offense. Jackson was responsible for mastering complex terminology and making pre- and post-snap decisions. He's roughly as “NFL ready,” from a mental standpoint, as the typical first-round quarterback prospect.

Just about every aspect of modern culture now drips with inflammatory racial semiotics, for reasons we probably shouldn't get into when trying to assign draft grades. Quarterback scouting has always had an oily layer of racial stereotyping right on its surface. Jackson was the lone high-profile African American quarterback in this class, so all of the toxicity was funneled directly onto him. He became a repository of idiotic takes, often by people who should know better. It became impossible over the last two months to drill down and just talk about Jackson as a quarterback without reaction to someone's overreaction to a reaction. We all got a little dumber, and Jackson bore the brunt of it.

Hopefully, this selection ends all of that. Jackson will get every opportunity to be the quarterback of the future for the Ravens. It should not take him long to overtake the fading, lumbering Joe Flacco. Baltimore is among the league's most stable, patient franchises, so Jackson is unlikely to get sucked into any unnecessary drama.

The Ravens waited until the end of the first round to get a potential franchise quarterback, acquiring a player they like (Hayden Hurst), even if we don't, along the way. Excellent, excellent work.

And it was great to see Jackson handle himself with so much grace as the draft wore on without his being selected, and to finally hear his name called. The racially charged maelstrom surrounding Jackson's arrival in the NFL has been wearying to both read and write about. Imagine how it must have been for him.

Grade: A-plus

NEXT UP: No. 33 Cleveland Browns (Round 2 tomorrow)