Why Lamar Jackson Ravens are thriving under Todd Monken and whats different about revamped offense this year
Why Lamar Jackson Ravens are thriving under Todd Monken and whats different about revamped offense this year
Blog Article
Back in 2019, the took the by storm with an offense designed around their then-new starting quarterback . Jackson's combination of rushing prowe s and downfield pa sing acumen was as rare as the league had ever seen, and what he, a strong offensive line and a powerful run game were able to do to opposing defenses was downright rude.The Ravens led the NFL that season in points per game, and they finished first, second or third in the NFL in nearly every measurement of offensive performance. But the next few years were not quite as succe sful. Teams caught onto the simplicity of former offensive coordinator Greg Roman's pa sing game. The team let the skill position talent around Jackson atrophy. And the offense struggled with injuries both to Jackson and along the offensive line.This past offseason, Baltimore made significant investments in a dramatic reimagining of their offense. Roman was let go from his post, and replaced with George Bulldogs offensive coordinator Todd Monken, fresh off back-to-back national championships. They Dan Vogelbach Jersey finally poured resources into their wide receiver room, signing . and , and drafting in the first round. They brought back most of their offensive line, and hoped to get better health out of both that group and the running back room.For the most part, the changes have worked exactly as the Ravens planned. There have still been health i sues both up front and at running back ( tore his Achilles in Week 1), but pairing Jackson with Monken and remaking the receiver corps have been smashing succe ses. In the table below, we have bolded the metrics in which the Ravens' to-date ranking (per Tru Media) during the 2023 season is the team's best since Jackson's MVP campaign in 2019. You should notice a trend.Season20192020202120222023Yds/Gm2196167Pts/Gm1717194Yds/Play31018125Pts/Drive181977Succe s Rate21713116Drive TD%1920207Total DVOA1111694Pa s DVOA11716148Rush DVOA111221EPA/play11319198EPA/pa s21921299EPA/rush11922No matter how you slice it, this has been by far the Ravens' best offensive season since 2019. Much of that is due to Jackson remaining healthy so far this year (although he has been clearly playing banged up of late), but a significant share of the bump can also be attributed to the schematic changes Monken has made, and how they have put Jackson and others in position to succeed.The single-most important thing Monken has done Ken Griffey Jersey is spread the field out with more receivers to give Jackson more room to operate. Looking at Baltimore's personnel usage, you'll see that it has dramatically scaled up its 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE) rate, while shrinking its usage of 12 (1 RB, 2 TE), 21 (2 RB, 1 TE) and 22 (2 RB, 2 TE) sets. Personnel usage201920202021202220231144.5%47.6%42.2%12.2%46.2%1217.0%8.8%8.1%22.6%14.5%135.7%0.0%2.2%2.7%0.0%2010.0%7.0%6.9%7.0%11.6%2110.4%11.3%20.9%24.5%21.2%2216.8%13.9%13.4%33.9%4.8%Putting more receivers on the field rather than backs or tight ends forces the opponent to cover a larger area of the field, and not pack quite so many defenders in near the line of scrimmage. It's no wonder that so far this season the Ravens have faced eight-man boxes at by far their lowest rate of the last five years: It's at 19.1% this year, compared with 31.7% last year and as high as 37% back in 2019, per Tru Media. That's afforded them wider running lanes they have had over the past few years, which has allowed them to find succe s running the ball despite the absence of Dobbins.Having more -- and crucially, better -- wide receivers in the game has also helped Jackson find significantly more pa sing succe s than he had over the past few years. Throwing to Flowers, Beckham, Agholor and is just a ma sive improvement over, say, , , and , which was the group the Ravens had for a good portion of last season. Jackson has directed a career-high 58.3% of his pa ses to wide receivers after throwing to them just 40.8% of the time last year.A spread field and more advanced concepts has afforded Jackson the opportunity to better see the routes develop, which has led to his most accurate pa sing season in years. According to Tru Media, Jackson's off-target throw rate (11.3%) is his best since 2020, while his turnover-worthy throw rate (1.7%) is his best since 2019. He's also pushing the ball downfield far better than ever, with a 9.6% explosive pa s-per-dropback rate that bests even the one he posted during his MVP campaign (9.1%) and is a full 1.5 times better than where he was at a year ago (6.4%). BAL QB #8 CMP%69.5YDs2441TD12INT5YD/Att8.08 Monken and Jackson also deserve credit for finally discovering and excelling with quick-game pa sing concepts. Partially due to his scrambling ability but also in part due to Roman's offensive design, Jackson has routinely thrown among the league's lowest rate of quick pa ses. Prior to this season, just 38.7% of his career throws has been released within 2.5 seconds of the snap, according to Tru Media. That rate has spiked to 44.4% this year, revealing an increased willingne s to aggre sively take the answers the defense is giving him early in the down. Those short, quick chain-movers can open things up for the aforementioned downfield throws, which are connecting at a higher rate this year.Down tight end for most of, if not the entire rest of the season, things might have to change even more down the stretch. You may even see the Ravens break out some four-receiver sets to get their best pa s-catchers on the field. And it wouldn't be surprising if they tried to involve explosive rookie running back in the pa sing game a bit more often as well.With the decrepit pa s defense on tap this Sunday night (8:20 p.m. ET on NBC), we should see Jackson and Co. find plenty of succe s through the air this weekend. If they can use that game as a springboard through the rest of the regular season, they could potentially make a run at the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and perhaps finally advance to the conference championship game or beyond for the first time during Jackson's tenure. If they' Matt Magill Jersey re able to pull that off, the revamping of their offense will have been a huge reason why.
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