Lamar Jackson leaves practice with injury, as questions continue to swirl | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports Charles Robinson and Jori Epstein discuss the Ravens superstar quarterback. Jackson left practice Wednesday due to injury. The QB is being questioned after his use of offensive language with a fan on twitter. His production has been lacking following a great start to the season. How can Lamar return to form and lock up the big contract he’s seeking? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
CHARLES ROBINSON: Lamar Jackson went out today of practice, left practice with a quad injury. He basically had this incident where he had an engagement with a fan who was taking issue with the amount of money that could be devoted to Lamar Jackson move forward with a contract, used the phrase eat [BLEEP]. I know it's going to get bleeped out on the pod here. But you can figure it out yourself. It's all out there.
Doesn't really reflect well. He's had a few interactions on Twitter, frankly social media, which in situations like this, I feel like it's never a positive for players ever because you just kind of get into fights that are better left, you know, just move on. And as I said, goes out of practice. There's just-- there's a lot of things starting to inject themselves physically, you know, partly wore sleeve at one point this year on his arm. That turned out to be fine.
Now, you're talking about this quad. He had an illness. I don't think they have a problem scoring points. I don't think that should necessarily enter into whether or not Lamar Jackson should get a contract. But he was very dominant early in the season.
He has thinned out in terms of the statistical look at it from weeks 4 to 12. Like, I think, OK, so weeks one to three, 10 passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, two interceptions. He hit a passer rating of 117.1. Weeks 4 to 12, 7 passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, five interceptions, passer rating of 76.6. I know we can get into all the analytics and all that fun stuff. But just from a basic standpoint though, as basic as those stats really are, you can say play lights out early as played much less so the last several weeks.
JORI EPSTEIN: Right, it's interesting because we are hardly the first ones to say. Lamar is asked to do a lot in Baltimore. And for that offense, he's asked to carry the load. He's asked to really elevate those around him.
And while his dual threat abilities often can do that, there comes a time, especially if injuries factor in, that you can only do that so much. Then I think the question becomes what now? Because OK, on Twitter-- and John Harbaugh said this, they had a conversation where he was like look, like, stay away from that, especially after losses.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right.
JORI EPSTEIN: I think one, find healthy outlet, some plan for them ahead of time. I remember when Amari Cooper was in Dallas, he talked about how in his really rough year in Oakland, he bought a Rubik's Cube and kind of kept himself busy with that. And then on another note, I think like have friends to tell that to you. OK, if you do see something because you just can't keep yourself on Twitter, like, I haven't felt quite what Lamar said.
But I sometimes have sassy things where I'm like, it's not really that bad, but like, is it really worth it relative to the relationships I'm trying to build in the league? And I'm like, OK, text a friend, maybe text a group text. Like, have someone else you say that. And he's got a lot of money on the line. So you're now--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah.
JORI EPSTEIN: --saying I want the Baltimore Ravens to believe that in theory, on the field, I can elevate everybody around me, regardless of circumstance because they're going to be paying me disproportionately relative to the rest of the roster to do that. And two, I'm going to be the absolute leader in the locker room. And that's also what I'm being paid to do. Well, both of those premises I wouldn't say are like dismissed these last few weeks. And I don't even know if getting called into like strong question, but you're definitely giving a little more reason for hesitation on both of the fronts that you would be getting your massive contract on the basis of over the last few weeks.
Now, I think on the flip side, if you're Baltimore and you have a generational talent, you have at least his rights via the franchise tag. Are you really going to live with yourself if you let that guy go and he goes on to success elsewhere? Probably not, but I think that Lamar's value definitely will be impacted if both this on field and this off field or either trend continues.
