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Revamped Ravens passing game looks familiar

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

Revamped Ravens passing game looks an awful lot like the old passing game

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 9/28/23

Quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens had some lofty expectations for their passing game entering the 2023 season thanks to the hiring of new offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

Through the first three games of the season, however, their passing game -- and their offense as a whole -- looks an awful lot like the offense we have seen from them over the past few years.

They run the ball well, Jackson is still dangerous with his legs and the passing game is still very pedestrian.

Jackson talked about the slow start throwing the football and tried to calm concerns by rightly pointing out that it is still only September and they are all still getting used to doing new things.

“It’s September,” Jackson said in his news conference. “One of our guys just got there that week, not even a month [ago]. He hasn’t been around [a long time]. We’re just trying to figure each other out right now. We didn’t really play [in] the preseason, so we’re trying to figure it out. “We just had one great game against Cincinnati. [We tried to] piggyback off that when we played the Colts, and we just had little mishaps. That happens. Every game is not perfect, but if we clean it up in Cleveland, I feel like the sky is the limit for us, like I always say.”

Through three games the Ravens are fifth in the NFL with 158 rushing yards per game, but only 24th in passing where they are averaging 190 yards per game.

During the 2022 season, they ranked second and 28th respectively in those two categories.

Jackson is right, it is still early and there are a lot of new faces in that offense that need to get some experience together, from wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and rookie Zay Flowers, to the coordinator himself. They have also played a couple of games in some really dreadful weather, including Sunday's overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

None of that means that there should not be any concerns, however.

The Ravens do not really have a great track record in recent years of drafting and developing wide receiver talent, while their big free agency addition at the position -- Beckham Jr. -- is 31 years old, trying to come back from a major injury and has already missed one game due to a different injury.

Flowers, the team's first-round pick out of Boston College, has already caught 21 passes on 25 targets (far and away more than any other player on the team), but he is averaging just nine yards per catch and has not really been much of a downfield threat (yet).

Even more than the numbers the offense just seems to look the same in what does and how it wants to operate. There is still time for that to change, but the AFC North weather is not going to get any better as we get deeper into the season and the Ravens still have some big question marks at the skill positions for Jackson to utilize.

In the preseason Jackson talked about having more control over the offense and potentially wanting to throw for 6,000 yards. With only 608 yards in three games, he would need to average 385 yards per game the rest of the way to get there. That seems extremely unlikely.

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