Joe Flacco not actively mentoring a rookie Lamar Jackson is the best thing that could’ve happened to him

Before he became a star, MVP-caliber quarterback, Lamar Jackson was once just a doe-eyed rookie like everyone else. He also had to learn the ropes, and he also had to get accustomed to the speed of NFL defenses. It happens to the best of them.

According to Robert Griffin III on a new episode of his podcast RGIII and The Ones, a rookie Jackson didn’t receive much hands-on assistance from a certain important Baltimore Ravens veteran — Joe Flacco. The former Baltimore quarterback, who helped the franchise win Super Bowl 47 in 2013, didn’t actively mentor Jackson when he was a rookie in 2018. It was more “by example.” Per Griffin III, it sometimes got to the point where meetings and interactions between Flacco and Jackson were palpably “awkward.”

Let’s be candid. While Flacco was under no obligation to help his replacement that much, his not directly teaching Jackson is the best possible thing that could’ve happened to the 26-year-old star quarterback’s career.

Full stop.

Oh, you mean to tell me Flacco didn’t want to give Jackson the secret about how to draw undue pass interference penalties on plays that had no chance? Yeah, I’m sure he could’ve used that. Wait, you’re saying Flacco didn’t show Jackson how to crumble at the slightest bit of pressure and waste $120 million of an organization’s money? Oof. What a real shame Jackson couldn’t channel him.

Ever since Jackson’s rookie year — where, again, Flacco had a by-example approach — he’s been one of the NFL’s most productive and dynamic signal callers. Not only did Jackson capture only the second-ever unanimous MVP award in 2019, but according to RBDSM.com, he also owns the 10th-best expected points added (EPA) among all quarterbacks since he entered the league. (By the way, the only other player to ever win unanimous MVP was the legendary Tom Brady, for posterity.) If we remove Jackson’s learning curve 2018 campaign from the docket, his EPA and completion percentage over expected (CPOE) composite of 0.124 ranks ninth since 2018.

Only several bona fide Hall of Famers and/or current superstars are ahead of Jackson. Ho-hum.

Yeah, I’d say Jackson is doing just fine without learning too much from an overpaid, glorified game manager who got impossibly streaky at the best time to win a Super Bowl. Sometimes, people have little worthwhile to teach you, you know?