 one of the things that we continue to talk about on here is how the media they will paint a picture for you of Lamar Jackson that is just completely false but a lot of people end up buying into these narratives because they're being spoken about by people in the media so a lot of people just feel like hey this person's in the media they got their credentials so they know exactly what they're saying but I'm here to give you another reminder that it's completely wrong now there was a clip that has been floating around of Diana Rossini who works for ESPN from her speaking on the show get up ESPN and the clip when I first saw it I was like oh yikes this is disgusting and it was one of the things that we've highlighted on here multiple times to where the media will subconsciously have you thinking Lamar Jackson only likes to run because of the highlights that they showed and she even confirmed that and she bought into it herself but I wanted to make sure like even though that clip was kind of nasty I wanted to make sure that I didn't take the clip out of context so I reviewed the whole segment just to make sure and reviewing the whole thing was probably worse how is he even going to camp if he doesn't have a deal Diana you're observing the situation closely I wonder what you think about where things stand between Lamar and the rave right so the the simple answer is not right that's what it always comes down to Lamar Jackson obviously has a number that he's shooting for and the Baltimore Ravens feel that he's only worth a certain number which then starts to make you think and take a look at how do the Ravens view their quarterback right are they viewing him as an elite quarterback that deserves the money that will see a top five quarterback get paid right now or perhaps are they not seeing him in that same arena perhaps they're only looking at him as just a superior athlete who's incredible they're changing the entire offense for him uh so that tells me they're in on him but maybe they're just not all the way at this point and you know you mentioned that it's been really quiet you know it's good to remind everyone that he doesn't have an agent he's represent he represents himself right um you know and the Ravens have kept this really quiet they want him there uh camp is going to be coming up in two weeks now and he has said on twitter he's going to show up he's not there for the voluntary ones but mini camp he will be there of course he'll be fine too if he doesn't show up um so in terms of the future of Lamar Jackson at this point do i think he would play without an extension getting done i do i think he would go out there and play and and take that chance on himself and and i think that's what the Ravens are sort of hoping he does as well because then they can just franchise tag him so for that part it wasn't too bad um even though she did speak on something to where she said that she's not sure how the Ravens view Lamar Jackson uh whether they view him as a true franchise quarterback or just this amazing athlete and that is actually a legitimate question uh but then she talked about how the Ravens changed their whole offense uh for Lamar Jackson of course we go back to 2018 when they did that but then more recent years it seems as if they changed their whole offense more so for Greg Roman than Lamar Jackson but that's a whole another conversation but she did speak on the fact that with Lamar Jackson that she would still expect him to play even if he doesn't have a deal done this off season that is my expectation too i think that's everybody's expectation so the first part wasn't too bad but let's keep going i think the impression is that the Ravens are going to give him a blank check because of the MVP because he's another worldly talent but you bring up that important point elite athlete but how do they see him as a quarterback nico what do you think about this well listen if i if i was in the front office which they wouldn't put me there because i would pay Lamar because i think he's that good of a football player but listen these guys are smart they do the analytics you think they do all that stuff about football players and their height and weight and they don't do about contact so embo gave me some stat line which is pretty pretty crazy to think that Lamar has been hit 821 times in his short career so i can guarantee the ravens are looking at the amount of amount of contact that he receives and longevity the next four to five years can he sustain that kind of contact without his game changing because is Lamar the same player if he loses a step or if he can't do the same things that year eight or nine that he did in the beginning parts of his career so you know for me i would pay him because i know how much he means to that organization but unfortunately these teams they pay for the future they don't care about what you've done in the past it's all about potential for the next five years and unfortunately i think that the reason that they're not giving him that top five quarterback money is because they're concerned about his longevity with how many contact and big hits that he has to take with his style play and this is where it started to take a turn for the worst because they brought back up the narrative of Lamar Jackson taking big hits even though all of his injuries were from making plays in the pocket all of the major injuries that he got his concussion that came from a bad snap that came from a terrible snap his ankle injury last year came from him staying in a pocket but the offensive line couldn't protect jot got in Lamar had to roll out and he completed the pass but it was not from him running around and then the whole narrative of oh he takes a lot of big hits because of his play style we don't know about his longevity because of his play style this is a narrative it's creeping back up we're trying to suppress it but it's creeping back up in the national media and of course it's no surprise because Lamar Jackson he's due for contract extension so a lot of these narratives are going to find themselves creeping back up but when it comes to contact you somebody just touching you that's contact whether they tackle you whether they touch you whether you slide there's so many ways of contact and again this shows that you and I was I was a bit disappointed I can't I was disappointed because this is Rob Nikovic somebody that's played in the NFL usually a lot of times when it comes to players that have played in the NFL they usually have different takes and they usually have a better more informed takes when it comes to players current players and whatnot especially with Lamar Jackson but I was disappointed because with Lamar if you watch the games this is why you cannot just ever go based off of stats you can't if you go based off of stats you're gonna look at the stats sheet and be like whoa that's concerning but if you actually watch the game that's why it's so important to actually watch the eye test it doesn't lie man so it's important that you actually look to see what's actually happening instead of just looking at a bunch of numbers on the paper but let's keep going totally get what you're saying this idea that what are we seeing from him in the pocket I just want to make it clear for everybody watching nobody is saying Lamar Jackson is not an amazing quarterback I mean that goes without saying he ranked 17th in the pocket oh the last two seasons in football and Nikko how do you think that plays out in terms of how they pay him because you're talking about if he doesn't in terms of changing his game and improving that part of it well first of all they need to help him so he needs a little bit more last year I know they dealt with a lot of injuries and he has a go-to tight end but if they could add a couple more pieces for receiving core I know they have young receivers right now they got speed at the receiver position but they need just a few more pieces to give him a little bit more confidence and he's going to have to progress kind of like how you know you look at the early parts of Mike Vick's career Michael Vick was a dynamic explosive runner but then as he got older he became a pocket quarterback and he would even say yeah I was looking to scramble but I was still I wanted to throw the football so I think Lamar is just going to have to adapt and change and as he gets a little bit older and he sees all these all the different looks and all the different defenses to adjust and start to protect himself a little bit I mean go and slide and not take in contact you know run it out of bounds throw in the football I think all those little things because every single hit it adds up so as a player and as his longevity and this earning career and in his earning throughout his career you know pile together he's got to make sure he takes care of himself so again it went back to all the big hits that Lamar Jackson has taken all the contact that Lamar Jackson takes I'm pretty sure I'm up to this point in Lamar Jackson's career that you could count on one hand maybe two but you wouldn't need all 10 fingers the number of big hits that Lamar Jackson has taken the number of big hits not contact but straight up big hits Lamar Jackson does not he doesn't take many big hits like Harley ever um and another thing to Lamar Jackson he does a very good job of protecting himself when he becomes a runner he does an excellent job at protecting himself he runs out of bounds a lot of times he slides sometimes he will initiate contact but he's not taking no crazy big hits like that um and another thing they talked about him as a pocket passer and another thing that Rob Nicovic previously talked about in that previous clip is is just something that's like oh why are we doing this um Lamar Jackson sort of being a run first quarterback and him wanting to run instead of him wanting to pass again it's very important that you actually watch Lamar Jackson play because we all know Lamar Jackson always wants to throw that football he said it himself he does not want to run he's shown it himself he does not want to run he wants to throw that football Lamar Jackson the one thing about him we know he is greedy and what I mean when I say that Lamar Jackson he wants them big plays man he wants them downfield throws the big pass and play that he wants it all the time and that's one thing a lot of us feel like could actually improve Lamar Jackson's game is taking more of the check down taking more of what's right in front of him instead of just going for the long ball but maybe a lot of that has to do with play calling who knows another conversation for another day but Lamar Jackson the media will have you believing that Lamar Jackson is a run first quarterback but we're not done with this clip yet because it continues to get just a bit nastier you cover the Steelers they're in their division rivals how does what you see with the Steelers and you're talking with them color what you think might be going on in this situation you know what Niko just had that handboast out about how many times Lamar's been hit and the Steelers second game against Lamar last year they sacked him seven times to me that ties into what Mike Tomlin said in 2020 when he said we respect him but we do not fear him oh love a good Mike Tomlinism but that to me sums up I think how the AFC North is a whole feels about him this guy he's he's still a very special talent I'm not going to say teams have Lamar Jackson figured out we are not going to walk down that path because I don't think you're ever going to have him all the way figured out but they're not as scared of him maybe as they were in his first couple years here the Steelers Lamar Jackson is is two and three against the Steelers he is also 12 and eight against the AFC North completing 63% of his passes he's just not as good in his own division and that to me tells me what other teams think of him so with that really not much of a problem with what she had to say about that and yet the Steelers for the most part they have had Lamar's number usually with the Pittsburgh Steelers they get a bunch of sacks like we remember last year they force I don't know if it's accurate but it seems like they force the most turnovers whenever they play Lamar Jackson but there was something that she said that stuck out to me she said when Lamar Jackson plays his own division he doesn't play as good they seem to play him a lot better but when you just think about it who do you play multiple times per season every year no matter what you play the people in your division not and this is not excusing anybody whether it's Lamar Jackson anybody else saying they they should step up when you play your division but Steel your division in your division you play with those guys against those guys twice every year no matter what there's some teams like just as the chiefs for example the Ravens could play them in the regular season and then they could possibly meet up in the playoffs the bills they could play the bills in the regular season they could possibly meet up in the playoffs but no matter what no matter if you make the playoffs or not you are going to play your division at least two times a year sometimes even three we remember I think it was last season or the season before that where it was two seasons ago where the Browns they played the Steelers two times and then they played them a third time in the playoffs so teams that are familiar with you they have an advantage because they know you they know your style they know your coaching style your personnel and all of that but as far as everything else that she said it wasn't anything too crazy and then she even said the little Mike Tomlinism which I forgot about that yeah we respect him but we don't fear him so this this here's important that Lamar Jackson make them Steelers feel fear him but anyway let's keep on going because we are entering the the nasty zone for this interview I think we can wrap this up with one thing when Rob was talking about Lamar we were showing those have that highlight rip of Lamar and what did we see we saw him running running it with tremendous speed and tremendous tremendous athleticism what wasn't he what didn't we really show there success in the pocket as a traditional pocket passer and those are the quarterbacks that are getting paid top daughter that's the story right when you see him you see the running and yeah it's fantastic and they've been able to choreograph their offense that way but that's not going to get you paid the money that I'm sure he's looking for I don't know if the Ravens are going to come up to the number that he's looking for but Rob paints a perfect picture of those concerns just based on what we're seeing here in film and that's where it took a turn for the nastiest and it was just like because she flat out said it she first she said what are we seeing with the how and then she's corrected herself and said what are we showing with the highlights we're showing him as a runner we're not showing him as a passer this is one of the biggest things that a lot of the media will do when they show in highlights of Lamar Jack and we talked about this before they will they'll mess with your subconscious because they will show you highlights of him running the football while they talk about oh he's a run first quarterback all he wants to do is run all he just running all over the place all Lamar Jackson does is run meanwhile there are plenty clips of him throwing that football but they choose to show you what they want you to believe and what they want you to understand the type of quarterback that they feel Lamar Jackson is they show you those clips so while they're talking while you're digesting hearing them talk you're also getting the visual you're getting the visual of exactly what they're talking about and you're like oh wow i'm looking at it so it's got to be true and i'm hearing it so it's got to be true i'm putting two and two together oh wow Lamar Jackson is a run first quarterback and this is why it's so important as football fans um to watch the actual games it is so important they also put up a stat a statistic Lamar Jackson has like a 56.7 qbr rating in the pocket or whatever the the the stat was that y'all saw it um and the context is so important it is so important and it said that Lamar has that rating over the past two seasons what has been the Raven's biggest issue over the past two seats their largest issue the thing that has been the biggest problem for them specifically on offense for the last two seasons the offensive line the offensive line and that's been their biggest issue by far biggest issue offensive line has been such a struggle it has been nasty at times especially last year guys going out with health the lack of quality uh missing martial y'all no more than ever but the offensive line has been downright bad a lot of times so when your offensive line is just so bad so consistently that doesn't help i did appreciate something that Rob Nikovin said uh early on and he talked about how you just feel like the Ravens just need a few more pieces and y'all know we have talked about that a lot on here and we will continue let's see what the Ravens do but i still feel that way too just another receiver too and then i feel like okay the Ravens may be straight and then maybe depending on what happens at linebacker too um but the Ravens are close in my they are very very very close and who knows maybe what the guys that they got maybe maybe they could make it happen but me personally i would feel more comfortable if they did add a few more pieces specifically uh at the receiver position just for depth uh for quality depth and for experience as well but again another conversation for another day but this is why it's so important again i know i've said it before but it is so important that you watch the games for yourself do not just take what the media is saying and run with it because they will have you believing something that is completely wrong