Baker Mayfield: “Minor on the field issues and a previous arrest.”
Josh Allen: “Looks the part, but wasn’t good when he played.”
Sam Darnold: “Turns the ball over a lot.”
Josh Rosen: “A pure passer, but can he physically hold up in the NFL.”
These are all legitimate things that were debating at the NFL Combine this past weekend. When you think of Lamar Jackson and just pretend for a minute that when you were evaluating him you happened to be color blind here are the things you would notice.
- No on or off the field issues.
- Teammates love him.
- Never missed a game or been hurt.
- Played in a pro-style system with the pro-style coach.
- Improved each of his three seasons throwing from the pocket.
- Has electric athletic playmaking ability.
- Needs to improve his footwork and accuracy.
There is nothing negative about Lamar Jackson, beyond needing to get better at some fundamental things that all quarterbacks need to get better at, so how did the discussion at COMBINE become about Jackson becoming a Wide Receiver and why did it happen?
My investigation started at the Combine on Thursday, but the seeds were planted weeks and months before that by ESPN via Awful Announcing.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has drawn fire for criticizing Jackson’s completion percentage, even while saying stats don’t matter when it comes to fellow signal-caller Josh Allen. Kiper’s ESPN colleague Bill Polian, meanwhile, sparked backlash when he suggested Jackson should switch to wide receiver.
Polian specifically said ridiculous things about Jackson like this via Big Lead.
“I don’t think that Lamar, the Louisville kid’s in that discussion (as a top QB), in fact, there’s a question that he may be, he might be a receiver.”
“No, I’m not kidding you. And that has to do with girth and skill set as well.”
Polian and others at ESPN are simply there to stoke these fires, because as I said before, talking about the actual football aspects of Jackson’s game doesn’t give them enough sizzle, they need things they can “EMBRACE THE DEBATE” on, and when you plant seeds of racism in any topic, it will lead to discussions.
So, when the combine was coming up, the media needed a story on Lamar Jackson that they can push out there, so you would be sure to watch. Talking about his footwork, isn’t going to get it done, so they fall back on what ESPN has done for months, the Jackson as a Wide Receiver angle. Remember Jackson has never in his life caught a pass or ran routes, he has been nothing but a QB all his life and a very good one at that.
Jackson as a QB prospect is better than any of the white and black names people like to throw out there to make there point about a potential position switch (Tebow, Matt Jones, Edelman, Hines Ward, Eric Crouch, Terrelle Pryor), none of those guys were elite QB prospects, Tebow was drafted 1st round because of his name not his skills as a QB.
So, with that knowledge, NFL.com ran this story right when the NFL combine was starting.
Here was the headline because all of this is important.
Multiple teams request Lamar Jackson to work out as WR
Could Lamar Jackson pull double duty this weekend in Indianapolis?
Multiple NFL teams have requested for the dual-threat Lousiville quarterback to work out as a wide receiver, in addition to working out as a QB, Good Morning Football’s Peter Schrager reported Friday, per a source informed of the situation.
Jackson hasn’t announced yet if he will work out as a wideout.
This became a major news story as soon as it broke, I was in Indianapolis at the time, and frankly, I was appalled that NFL teams would ask Jackson this type of question. I spoke about how this had racial overtones and simply showed how difficult it is being black in America.
Then something interesting happened. While filled with all this annoyance while at the combine I simply started talking to teams. I spoke with at least 30 scouts, GMs, Head coaches, assistant coaches and other media members about Lamar Jackson working out as Wide Receiver and they all had the same answer.
“We really have no idea where that report came from, we just see him as a QB.”
At that point I started to get suspicious about the report, but I wanted to talk to Lamar Jackson first, assuming he could clear this all up for us by telling us who were the teams who asked him to work out as a WR, but Jackson’s answers only caused more confusion.
Lamar Jackson on just being a QB and thinking it’s crazy anyone would think otherwise pic.twitter.com/sgPXSDVbrJ
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) March 2, 2018
The day ended with more questions than answers.
If no one asked Lamar Jackson to workout at Wide Receiver why was there a report that multiple teams had made the request?
It was obvious someone was lying, and as I dug deeper into the story, the more I heard was that it wasn’t so much fabricated as it was hyped up to create a narrative that wasn’t there.
This was confirmed more or less by NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport.
Lamar Jackson has said no one asked him to do WR drills. But the requests were, in fact, made. Three more: DBs Marcus Allen, Terrell Edmunds and Derwin James were asked to do LB drills.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 3, 2018
The first tweet from Rap makes it seems like Jackson is lying and also tries to downplay the request with a very asinine comparison that made no sense.
Jackson wasn’t lying, so Rap tried to clean it up some more.
Some knowledge and insight into the process of how the request was made for #Louisville QB Lamar Jackson to do WR drills. This is from a personnel chief: pic.twitter.com/eONyv1Ck5J
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 3, 2018
This is the actual truth, there is a meeting where teams can casually ask, and from my sources that is what happened, one team casually asked if Jackson would be open to running WR drills, it was quickly shot down, and that was the end of it. From that point like the telephone game, it became multiple teams had asked Jackson directly and that what was reported.
Realizing that once again this was a hyped up story that had no real merit, Rap continued to try to push this narrative that it wasn’t a big deal by using terrible comparisons.
It’s not uncommon that teams requested #Louisville QB Lamar Jackson to do receiver drills. For instance: RBs Ronald Jones and Sony Michel was asked to do WR drills. DE’s Bradley Chubb and Marcus Davenport were asked to do LB drills.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 3, 2018
The facts are it is very uncommon to ask 1st-2nd Quarterback prospects to do any drills besides QB ones. At best it maybe casually mentioned but, you will be hard press to find any quarterback at the combine with a 1st-2nd grade ever running any drills but QB ones. Running Backs are expected to be able to catch the ball, and DE and LBs are becoming interchangeable in the NFL, so it makes perfect sense for them to be asked and workout at multiple positions. What was happening is Rap knew that this story about Jackson was much ado about nothing, so he was trying to clean it up, but sorry it is still all dirty. There is a reason why a random request for Sony Michel to do WR drills was never made into a story.
The question WHY.
Why make a massive story out of something so minor, but you already know the answer. Lamar Jackson couldn’t just be evaluated on the merit of his QB skills, he couldn’t just be like Mason Rudolph at the Combine. When that ONE team, made ONE casual request, the media, mostly white mainstream media saw it as an opportunity, to run with what the Kipers and Polians have been pushing for months, because they knew it would become a divisive story that would draw attention to the combine.
It isn’t just a black and white thing, it is a media thing. They do it to white players as well (even if they are more protected, see Josh Allen). That is why Mayfield has to answers questions about Manziel, when they are nothing alike, besides being white and around the same height. It is why there is this asinine assessment of Josh Rosen is floating around.
Everything that’s wrong with the NFL summed up right here, re: questions about Josh Rosen, in @SI_PeterKing’s latest MMQB pic.twitter.com/UwaYd699Bd
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) March 5, 2018
The point I am trying to make is take media with a grain of salt, a lot of times they don’t care about the truth, they care about what will make you watch their shows and read their sites (I am not immune to that critique as well, but at least I won’t lie about it).
It is sad that Lamar Jackson had to go through this because he didn’t deserve it, but now you know the truth, the truth they never wanted you to know.