When the Ravens hosted the Broncos in early December, no one could have imagined the Week 13 game might be Lamar Jackson’s last with Baltimore.
Well, that might prove to be the reality for one of the NFL’s most electrifying quarterbacks.
The knee injury Jackson sustained in that game against Denver kept him on the sideline for the remainder of the Ravens’ 2022 season. The 2019 NFL MVP wasn’t even able to practice the last month-plus of the campaign and he watched from home when Baltimore lost its wild-card matchup with the Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday night.
Jackon’s football future could go in a few different directions. The impending free agent could test the open market or re-sign with the Ravens, who drafted him with the 32nd overall pick in 2018. There’s also the possibility Baltimore hits him with the franchise tag and then rosters him for the 2023 campaign or trades him away.
And if a Jackson blockbuster deal ends up being the chosen method of operation, Dan Orlovsky believes there’s an ideal landing spot for the star signal-caller.
“My mind immediately goes to Atlanta Falcons,” Orlovsky said Monday on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “If that’s gonna be the case and Baltimore’s gonna trade Lamar, man, it makes a ton of sense with the way that they are set up with their football team. He would be a perfect fit organizationally, as much as I love Desmond Ridder.”
The Falcons did make a fairly significant investment in Ridder, a third-round pick in last year’s draft. But if Atlanta has the opportunity to trade for Jackson this spring, the franchise absolutely should jump at the chance.
