Lamar Jackson refuses to entertain Super Bowl talk after an 8-9 season

[ASFN Admin]

Lamar Jackson shares the expectations of those who believe the Baltimore Ravens can contend for a Super Bowl. He is no longer interested in discussing those projections without results. Baltimore entered last season widely viewed as one of the NFL’s most talented teams. The Ravens instead finished 8-9 and missed the postseason, providing Jackson with a direct response to another offseason of championship predictions.

“We were just 8-9,” Jackson said on “The Lounge” podcast. “We were talking about it, but we didn’t produce. So why talk about it? We’ve got to be about it.”

Jackson still expects Baltimore to compete for the championship. His focus has shifted toward the daily work required to reach February rather than the destination itself.

“It starts now,” Jackson said. “It starts each and every week. It doesn’t just happen in February. We have to get there first.”

That process includes improvement in meetings, practice, recovery and situational football. Jackson pointed to a recent training-camp practice in which the Ravens began and finished poorly. He viewed it as an opportunity to correct a pattern that has hurt Baltimore during previous seasons. The lesson was reinforced by Baltimore’s playoff loss to Tennessee following the 2019 regular season. The Ravens entered that game with a 14-2 record and considerable expectations but fell behind early and never recovered.

Jackson said his younger self believed NFL success sometimes felt easy. Experience taught him that reputations and regular-season records cannot replace execution when the competition becomes more demanding.

“We need to work on stuff like that now, so when the season comes, playoffs come and so on, we won’t ever have that situation happen,” Jackson said.

The Ravens possess another roster capable of competing in the AFC, but Jackson will not judge it by names or preseason projections. His standard begins with whether Baltimore consistently handles the work directly in front of it.

This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Lamar Jackson refuses to entertain Super Bowl talk after an 8-9 season

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