Passing on Lamar Jackson

I was reading an article and found that Lamar is tied with Rogers for the greatest career QB rating at 102.2 with a minimum of 1500 passing attempts.

We all talk about the passing on Dan Marino, which was a huge mistake. What about the passing on Lamar Jackson?

This year they picked Terrell Edmunds at the 28th pick as Lamar fell to their division rival at the 32nd pick which should be up their with Rogers as one of the greatest slides in NFL history imo.

Edmunds was at most an ok safety which is currently a journeyman looking to keep a job that filled a need. He has a total of 6 into in his career.

Lamar would have filled the big Ben post retirement void nicely.

Yes I know he would have whined if we drafted him lol. It just goes to show the significance of missing drafting a quality signal caller.

Thoughts, questions, concerns.

 

What about passing on Brady? Or passing on mahomes? This could be done with every player the steelers didnt draft,but nerve on to have a successful career

 

Lamar doesn’t win playoff games he would have fit in nicely here.

 

First off, I was 100% against the Edmunds pick in the first round. He was a reach!

That said, I don’t think Lamar Jackson would have become the player he is today if the Steelers had drafted him in 2018. Lamar landed in the perfect situation in Baltimore: a good head coach, a good offensive line, a strong run game, and a good defense. That allowed him to play a low-risk, run-first style. The Ravens feasted on bad and average teams. However, when they faced playoff-caliber opponents — the games where you actually need a quarterback who can drop back and beat defenses through the air, Jackson has struggled. He’s 3-5 in the playoffs and has often fallen flat when his team is trailing or needs him to carry the passing game.

 

I was originally going to say that part of what makes passing on Marino worse is that we didn't have a QB at the time. Although I guess that's not quite true...Terry played 9 games in 1982 (Marino was drafted in 83). Bradshaw played one game in 83 (his last year). I wasn't watching games back then...so I don't know what the perception of Terry being done was. He was 34 at the time. And my guess is that was very old for a QB in the early 80s.

Marino was also a prototypical QB (from the Steelers back yard) who would be a great fit anywhere. And this is the big difference IMO.

I think the Lamar story is different. Or at least felt like it was going to be different at the time. He was drafted in 2018. And although Ben turned out to be close to the end, I don't think anyone realistically though "we need to go out and draft a 1st round QB to replace Ben" in 2018. He was threatening to retire, but that seemed to be a pretty obvious power play to get rid of Haley. And Haley was let go in January. Well before the draft in April.

I also think there is no way that rookie Lamar would have been successful playing in a system designed for Ben. It hurts to say, but the Rats (and Harbaugh) did an excellent job changing their entire offense to suit what made Lamar special. I don't have a lot of faith that (1) we would have done the same with him sitting behind Ben and (2) we would have done it as well as the Rats did.

 

Mahomes was the 10th pick of the draft. We didn't pass on him.

Lamar was drafted with the 32nd pick (even the Ravens passed on him once). We picked Edmunds at 28, so we did pass on Lamar.

Brady is an excellent example of how no one can scout NFL QBs.

 

Tomlin's never been able to develop a qb.

 

We should have passed on Tomlin first

 

Personally, I think most QBs don't really get "developed" in the NFL.

And in the rare cases it does happen (e.g. Allen, Lamar), I don't think it's the HC that is responsible for that development.

Although I would argue that Harbaugh did create the right environment for Lamar to "develop" in...but I don't think he was working with Lamar on how to be a better passer.

 

They passed on Marino because of the rumor that he was a coke head, which was BS. It wouldn't surprise me if the Dolphins started the rumor just so Marino would drop to them in the draft.

 

Ben developed into a hall of fame QB under Tomlin

 

Even some of the good offensive minded HCs fail at developing a QB, Shanahan traded up for Trey Lance and couldn't develop him.

 

Arians and Haley had nothing to do with it. It was all popcorn.

 

I have read that Noll thought they could get a few more years out of Bradshaw and that was part of why they passed on Marino. They also wanted to try to build the team for the '80s on the same foundation as the teams in the '70s, starting with a stud defensive tackle. They thought Gabe Rivera was that guy. Maybe he would have been if not for the accident.

You are correct in explaining how the Marino situation was so different from Jackson. Marino could have fit in any system, though I can see how he and Noll might have clashed. Jackson needed the right situation, and the Steelers were unlikely to give it to him.

 

That was another rumored reason why they passed. I can't definitively say either way, but I've met some of Marino's former teammates at Pitt. I would not dismiss that as BS. Based on what I've been told, he partied quite a bit at Pitt and did some things he shouldn't have done. I wonder if seeing how drugs ruined Joe Gilliam affected the Steelers' thought process there.

 

Selecting Jerald Hawkins a OT that has never heard or seen from again instead of Dak Prescott in the 4th round in 2016 was criminal.

And that isn't just hindsight because Ben gets hurt later and Dak is good. It is just my belief that teams should always be looking for falling QB talent. Even if you do not need them, someone will.

 

He hired them duh . A defensive coach isn't going to personally develop a QB but the culture and system matters.

 

It may not just be hindsight, but it is hindsight.

 

I dunno. Everything is hindsight at some point.

I do distinctly remember the Steelers place I hung out at in 2016 being a significant and vocal cadre of folks banging the table for Dak in the 3rd and 4th.

 

ARII and Colbert hired Haley to save Ben from an early career exit. Arians wasn't hired by Tomlin, he was hired by Cowher as WR coach and then promoted to OC by Tomlin. Arians already had a job with Steelers.

 

Yeah. I remember Steve Mariucci trying hard to get 1st rounder Jim Druckenmiller to be at least decent. Never worked.

 

Tomlin promoted Arians which he didn't have to do stop talking out of your ass, acting like Tomlin didn't have a say in bringing Haley in .

 

C'mon. You remember how the Steelers' internet works. All good things are the result of players - specifically the ones the fans like. And all bad things flow from Tomlin.

 

Oddly, the Ravens had Flacco at the time, who was younger than Ben. They were either extremely wise to draft him or just plain dumb luck. I will go with the first option, as they traded back into Round 1 to draft him.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Edmunds was a true blunder when you go back and revisit the draft.

On a side note, they also passed on Hurts for Chase Claypool. Ouch.