Mark Schlereth won’t accept any justifications from Jackson or the Ravens.
Three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth believes there are no longer excuses for Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. Jackson was recently singled out by the legendary former Broncos player turned NFL pundit, who particularly rejected the notion that the Ravens had never provided him with weapons.
He pointed out how many weapons the Ravens have acquired under Jackson’s leadership, but he also said that the two-time NFL MVP has a responsibility to assist in making those guys into productive members of the team.
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.”
Jackson was selected by Baltimore in the first round of the 2018 draft. It has made major investments at the pass-catching position, including that offseason when it also selected tight end Hayden Hurst in the first round (No. 25 overall). The team selected wideout Marquise Brown in the 2019 draft. Then, in 2021 and 2023, it added Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, two more receivers. Although he didn’t quite live up to his first-round hype, Brown was a reliable player when he was with Baltimore and was eventually transferred to Arizona. After three seasons, Bateman is still not a household name. Although it was just one season, Flowers’ rookie campaign last year showed potential.
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.
