The excuses are running thin for Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in the eyes of three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth. The former Broncos great turned NFL analyst recently put Jackson in the crosshairs, specifically dismissing the idea that the Ravens have not given him weapons throughout his career.
While highlighting how many weapons the Ravens have brought in throughout Jackson’s tenure, he also noted that it’s on the two-time NFL MVP to help develop those players into viable contributors.
“I do not want to hear from all of you out there that are telling me that Lamar Jackson, ‘Well, they don’t get him weapons,'” Schlereth said on The Stinkin Truth podcast. “How many first-round wide receivers do you need to draft? ‘Well, they’re not drafting the right one.’ Well, you’re not developing them. How do you develop them? Your quarterback has a long way to go in developing wide receivers, so I don’t want to hear that bullshit from you anymore or any of you Baltimore fans. I’m tired of it.”
Baltimore drafted Jackson in the first round back in 2018. Including that offseason when it also brought in tight end Hayden Hurst in the first round (No. 25 overall), it has invested heavily at the pass-catching position. In 2019, the club drafted wideout Marquise Brown. Then, it added fellow receivers Rashod Bateman in 2021 and Zay Flowers in 2023. Brown was a solid contributor during his tenure with Baltimore but didn’t exactly live up to his first-round billing and ultimately was traded to Arizona. Through three seasons, Bateman has yet to break out. Flowers showed promise as a rookie last year, but that was only one season.
“They’ve drafted first round on talent, they drafted tight ends in the first round, they drafted three different wide receivers since 2018 in the first round,” Schlereth continued. “I mean, Aaron Rodgers went 16, 17 years with the Green Bay Packers and they never drafted a guy in the first round whether it was a tight end or a wide receiver for him. So don’t tell me about it. … Produce in the playoffs.”
That last bit is the rub on Lamar Jackson’s story in the NFL to this point. Despite winning two MVPs and producing as one of the top duel-threat quarterbacks in NFL history, it has yet to translate to wins in the postseason. Jackson is 2-4 in the playoffs in his career, which has put him under the microscope, especially with the team attempting to give him weapons. So long as he is unable to get them over the hump, he’ll open himself up to personal scrutiny and questions of whether or not the Ravens have done enough to allow him to succeed.
