Getty Image / Michael Owens
Heading into the 2023 NFL offseason, the Baltimore Ravens have some big questions to answer on offense.
The biggest of those questions is whether or not Lamar Jackson will actually be their quarterback next season.
Once that is settled, they’ll still need to take steps to improve on that side of the ball.
There has been plenty of talk about the state of the Ravens’ passing game and today Chris Simms asked Mark Andrews about it.
Andrews sent a pretty clear message that the team’s passing attack needs to improve next season.
Ravens TE Mark Andrews on what a new OC needs to bring: “this is such a pass happy league. If you’re not doing it, you’re gonna fall behind”. Said they need to change the narrative that Baltimore isn’t a great place for WR to flourish pic.twitter.com/pNTIkZojIO
— Chris Simms (@CSimmsQB) February 7, 2023
Andrews has good reason to be frustrated with the Ravens offense right now and he isn’t the first one to express their frustration.
Marquise Brown was not happy with the Ravens offense last year and ended up requesting a trade because of it. He was eventually traded to the Arizona Cardinals where he quickly proved that the Ravens’ system was holding him back early in the year.
Andrews probably won’t be requesting a trade any time soon, but it isn’t a surprise that he wasn’t happy with the offense this past year.
Andrews was on fire to start the season, topping 80 yards 4 times in the first 6 weeks and catching 5 touchdowns in those 6 weeks. He didn’t catch another touchdown for the rest of the regular season and didn’t top 80 yards again until Week 17.
The fact that Lamar Jackson missed the last 5 games of the year certainly didn’t help, but the pass offense had clearly taken a step back before the injury.
The Ravens have a strong run game and an improved defense, but they’ll need to figure out the passing game if they want to keep up with the elite offenses at the top of the AFC.