Russell Street Report Street Talk A New and Improved Lamar Jackson

Unless you were living under a rock from August 2018 until January 2019, you know that Lamar Jackson can have spotty accuracy when throwing the football.

That’s the main reason he has so many detractors.

Many fans and analysts think that Jackson will end up just like his current backup, Robert Griffin III, as an NFL journeyman fighting for snaps after getting injured while trying to run. The Ravens did what they could in the middle of last season to work with Jackson’s skillset and it was effective until they reached the playoffs.

Jackson admitted this week that his mechanics were off, and he was “getting lazy,” not following through with his legs in his throwing motion. He’s spent the past few weeks in Florida with some of his former coaches and teammates, along with some current Ravens players, such as Jordan Lasley, working on his passing skills.

Now that Jackson is preparing as a starter, more teams will have the chance to analyze his game.

Both he and the Ravens coaches realize there’s two outcomes: adapt or fade into irrelevance.

Make no mistake, this isn’t a powderpuff piece overflowing with endless optimism, I’m not saying Jackson will succeed because it’s what I want to happen, but because he has no other alternative.

What most people don’t know is that while Jackson obviously needs to tweak his game, he still had a better completion percentage than three of the other four first-round quarterbacks in last year’s draft class.

Quarterbacks go their entire lives throwing a ball a certain way, it certainly can’t be changed in a matter of months, but it can be improved with hard work and the right coaching.

Jackson won’t be perfect by any means in 2019 but he will be better … and you can take that to the bank.