Lamar Jackson’s legacy in Baltimore amounts to one empty promise

“They’re gonna get a Super Bowl outta me.”

With a steel-eyed gaze into the television camera—on Draft Night in Nashville, 2018—Lamar Demeatrice Jackson Jr. made that bold proclamation, after the Baltimore Ravens traded back into the first round to select the former University of Louisville Heisman Trophy winner as the night’s final act.

Every other team that had a pick in the opening round that night—including his eventual employer—passed on him.

That’s why few would fault him at that moment for his austere tone and brazen attitude.

Certainly not Ravens fans, who collectively crowed over the team’s unconventional draft maneuver; that is, trading back into the first round for such an exceptional talent versus what they’d become all too accustomed to in past drafts—trading out of the first round for more talent.

Suddenly, the Ravens were relevant again.

After licking their wounds from three, successive campaigns without a postseason berth—mired in a slump pinned mostly on the albatross of a contract that then-QB Joe Flacco had most certainly earned throughout his rookie deal—there was once again real hope for the franchise to get back to its winning culture.

Of course, the former Super Bowl MVP would have say into when this exciting, new chapter would begin in Baltimore and so it did when, following a Week 10 bye, the injured starter permanently ceded the top of the QB depth chart to the rookie.

The move transformed the Ravens almost instantly, as the team notched a 6-1 record down the stretch to earn a home playoff game during the Wild Card Round. It didn’t end especially well though, as the Los Angeles Chargers would draw up the blueprint for how to neutralize the dual-threat QB in that playoff game.

Still, Charm City was absolutely smitten with its shiny, new charm and he delivered a scintillating 2019 season, leading the Ravens to a 14-2 record and the AFC’s number one seed, which also resulted in a unanimous MVP honor for himself.

In retrospect, perhaps that was the very moment when the Ravens front office should have extended his contract.

But a Divisional Round exit on an eerily balmy, January night against the plucky and fearless Tennessee Titans proved there was still more work to be done by Lamar—and his band of merry, Big Truss Ravens—in order to fulfill his Draft Night prophecy.

Ironically, it was in the very town where Lamar was once spurned where fulfillment of said promise seemed destined to happen; following a season that, itself, almost didn’t thanks to a global pandemic.

For, in a fitting rematch pitting the prior January’s clubs, this time Jackson dished and dashed the Ravens to a 20-13 victory over their bitter rivals—waving his club off the field, sans handshakes, as a pitch perfect rebuke of the Music City.

Only, one week later in wind-swept Buffalo, the Ravens season would come to a crashing end as Lamar was severely concussed just before halftime of that Divisional Round contest with the Bills.

Lamar Jackson never played a snap in another January game for the Ravens after that. Heck, he barely played any snaps in Decembers thereafter either.

That’s was so frustrating about this entire Lamar Jackson payday saga. Not who’s to blame for a deal not made but what would the Ravens actually be buying if the two sides could come to an agreement?

The man promised a Super Bowl. Although he most certainly meant Super Bowl title when he said it, just leading the Ravens to a championship opportunity could have been argued as fulfilment.

Instead, what Baltimore got was a whole lot of regular season success with him behind center (45-16), a 1-3 postseason record, an unforgettable 2019 regular season with a regrettable conclusion, and diminished returns (and, sadly, some petulant behavior) during the last two campaigns.

Yes, keeping a promise as big as “They’re gonna get a Super Bowl outta me” is a tall task. Championships aren’t preordained and they do require the conviction of more than just one man.

But clearly, Lamar Jackson wasn’t quite the leader that the Baltimore Ravens and their fans wanted him to be.

Let’s not forget that it was the Ravens who traded back into the first round on Draft Night in 2018 to give him his shot.

And today, with his tweet, is how he thanked them.

That can’t be forgotten.

Right or wrong, that’s what will mark his real legacy in Baltimore.