Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson acted surprised that the Ravens traded receiver Hollywood Brown last night. Jackson shouldn’t have been.
Brown told I Am Athlete Tonight on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio that he did indeed ask for a trade, and that Jackson did indeed know.
“It was just . . . my happiness,” Brown said. “I talked to Lamar about it after my second year. And then after my third year, leading up to the end of the season, you know, he wasn’t playing. I let him know again, like, ‘Yeah, bro, I can’t do it.’ You know, it’s not really on Lamar, like I love Lamar. It was just, you know, it’s just the system just wasn’t for me personally. You know, I love all my teammates. I love the guys. It was just something I had to think about for myself.”
So why did Lamar act surprised about the move, and why did Lamar seem upset that the Ravens did it? Although Brown said he loves Lamar, Brown said it all when he uttered the words, “The system just wasn’t for me.”
That system is Lamar Jackson. It’s built around Jackson. It’s not conducive to receivers generating big numbers.
A rejection of the system is a rejection of Jackson, no matter what Brown or anyone else says.
It’s one of the reasons why the Ravens have a hard time attracting receivers via free agency. They have to draft them. And then they may have to trade them.
That will be the case unless and until they change the system. On one hand, it’s useful to not do whatever everyone else does; it puts extra pressure on opposing defenses who don’t face that kind of system on a regular basis.
On the other hand, if what a given team is doing de-emphasizes one specific offensive position, the players who play that position will eventually want to play somewhere else.