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#3 Believe: Lamar Jackson is a true threat as a passer
I know it was against the Dolphins, who looked mediocre, and we only have one game to judge him on, but I really think Lamar Jackson is a different player coming into year two. After going 6-1 as a starter down the stretch for Baltimore, the former Heisman Trophy winner could not do anything through the air in the playoff game against the Chargers and people started making fun of him being a running back and so on.
In his first game of 2019, he completed 17 of 20 passes for 324 yards and five touchdowns, posting a perfect quarterback rating and shutting up the critics. While the Dolphins just refused to play a deep safety and allowed all those deep bombs, just looking at Lamar’s rhythm and throwing motion, it feels different than a year ago. Plus, Miami’s secondary is actually the best unit on their team by a lot.
This probably was his easiest test of the year, but Jackson is so much more comfortable in this new offense and now has weapons around him. Last year the Ravens receiving corp lacked playmakers and a lot of times everything happened so fast, that the only way Jackson knew how to counter that was using his own speed. This should still be a run-oriented offense with Lamar being a threat to pull the ball on every single play, but when teams start stacking the box and leaving their DBs one-on-one, he can make them pay quickly.
#3 Ignore: The Jaguars are done without Nick Foles
This might be more about people who actually believed in the 2019 Jaguars, which includes me since I had them winning the AFC South. With how good pretty much all the other three teams looked (even the two of them lost) and the starting QB headed for IR, I might have to reconsider this, but I don’t believe we should completely disregard this team.
The main reasons I had the Jags making it back to the postseason was a massive offensive line for Leonard Fournette to run behind, better options in the passing game than they get credit for, a ferocious defensive line and a secondary that can shut down opposing receivers. Nick Foles certainly was the factor that made me put them over the top, but we have seen this team go to the AFC Championship Game with pretty bad quarterback play.
Gardner Minshew might have been a sixth-round pick and I had him slightly outside my top ten QB prospects for this year’s draft, but he finished fifth in the Heisman race last season and plays with a lot of confidence. That should not change after going 22 of 25 for 275 yards and two TDs (with one interception) after Foles came out of the game.
If there is the reason for doubt, it’s the fact that the Jags only rushed for 81 yards and their defense surrendered 40 points, but a lot of that had to do with them being in catch-up mode and without Myles Jack for most of the afternoon while losing their cool a lot.
