The “dynamic” between Lamar Jackson and Joe Flacco in 2018 was “awkward”, according to Robert Griffin III.
Jackson, Flacco and Griffin were all on the Baltimore Ravens’ roster in 2018. Jackson was a rookie that year and wound up taking the starting job from Flacco, who was traded to the Denver Broncos in the 2019 offseason.
Speaking on his “RG3 and The Ones” podcast (h/t Erin Walsh of Bleacher Report), the 2012 Offensive Rookie of the Year revealed that things were “awkward” between Flacco and Jackson because the Super Bowl 47 MVP wouldn’t mentor his teammate:
It was awkward. Let’s just call it what it was. Joe is a Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Ravens…So not only do they win the Super Bowl, but he bet on himself and they won the Super Bowl.
So since that moment the Ravens have been struggling getting to the postseason, having postseason success. So they drafted Lamar. They brought me in at first to be in that room with Joe and then they drafted Lamar and really kept me there to help be a mentor for Lamar Jackson.
“For (Joe) and Lamar, it was more of learn from my example. There’s a viral clip that was going around in 2018, this was Lamar’s rookie year, and it’s me and Joe on the sideline coaching Lamar up about a certain throw and when to make that certain throw and in that moment, I was doing what I normally do every single week with Lamar…
That was my focus with Lamar and in that moment Joe jumped in and started teaching Lamar things on the sideline that I was like ‘Oh we’re really going to go somewhere now’ because that was like the first moment that our entire room was like on the same page of we gotta help Lamar do everything that he needs to do to help us win games and it’s not about self in that moment.”
A hip injury to Flacco prompted the Ravens to start Jackson in Baltimore’s Week 10 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Jackson went 6-1 as the Ravens’ starter and led the Ravens to their first AFC North division title in six years. One year later, he ran away with the league MVP after rushing for 1,206 yards (the most ever by a QB in a single season) while throwing an NFL-leading 36 touchdowns.
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Jackson led Baltimore to the postseason in four of his first five NFL seasons (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022), while Flacco has since had to accept a journeyman backup around the league.
Flacco started the 2019 season with the Broncos but lost his starting job to Drew Lock. He was with the New York Jets from 2020 to 2022 and is currently a free agent.
