The Baltimore Ravens are seriously considering a reboot of their stalled offense coming out of the bye, sources said, that may include Lamar Jackson taking over as starting quarterback for former Super Bowl winner Joe Flacco.
The coaches are using their bye to self-scout and assess a potential path to reach the playoffs at 4-5, and with a fairly daunting schedule remaining, they already faced a tough task before Flacco suffered a potentially serious hip injury last week. Flacco went to get a second opinion on his hip, with the details available next week, and the prognosis could include prolonged rest or season-ending surgery.
Getting Jackson -- who the Ravens traded back into the first round to draft in April -- on the field for longer, more pronounced stretches was already one of the coaching staff's priorities with the offense stumbling both on the ground and through the air, and few explosive playmakers on the offense. Having Flacco, not very mobile already and playing through a beat-up offensive line, try to gut it out might not make sense for him or the team under the circumstances, and sources indicated it is very likely Jackson takes over in Week 11. Baltimore has already been carrying a third quarterback all season, with Robert Griffin III inactive each week, so the Ravens have plenty of depth if Flacco is done for the season.
The only times the Ravens have been able to get chunk yards on the ground has been with Jackson at quarterback running RPOs, and during their three-game losing streak the failure of their traditional run game has led to too many passing attempts and an aging defense being on the field at average of 34 minutes a game. Flacco, who will save the Ravens $10M in cap space and $18.5M in cash if he is traded or let go in 2019, is the NFL's 26th rated passer, while the Ravens rank just 27th in yards per play.
If the Ravens are not going to be a postseason factor, then it only stands to reason that they get a good look at Jackson before going into the offseason, anyway. The other four quarterbacks selected in the first round all made their NFL debuts within the first month of the season, while Jackson has been used as a gadget-guy/secondary option for a few plays each game to this point.
Head coach John Harbaugh spoke about the need to get Jackson on the field more before the team broke for the bye, and if nothing else he is in line for taking over the offense at a series or two at a time. If the Ravens lose to the Bengals in Week 11, it effectively negates their playoff chances (it would drop them to 1-4 in the division), in which case a transition to Jackson for Week 12 at home against the lowly Raiders becomes something of a no-brainer.
It has not gone unnoticed in Baltimore how several teams around the NFL are having success with young and/or limited quarterbacks by getting creative with their approach to RPOs (the Bears with Mitchell Trubisky, for instance) and to this point Baltimore's offense has been off kilter at times. Opposing teams know that to this point, when Jackson is on the field it is almost always a running play, and they are keying on that, with Flacco flanked out as a non-factor "wide receiver." Things may open up more with an actual pass catcher on the field instead.
Flacco is far and away the most storied quarterback in Ravens history, bringing stability and productivity to a position that the team had long struggled to fill. His run in the 2012 playoffs and Super Bowl MVP trophy cement him in the annals of Baltimore sports history, and he and Harbaugh ushered in a very successful era, but with just one playoff appearance since that Lombardi Trophy, it is highly unlikely either is back in Baltimore in 2019.
Harbaugh and Flacco share a tight bond and mutual affinity and if Harbaugh ends up coaching a QB-needy team in 2019, a reunion may not be out of the question.
