Ravens Usage Of Ja'Kobi Lane In Preseason Debut Offers Huge Clues About His Future

The goal for coaches in the preseason is to quickly develop their most talented young players without tipping their hand too much about what’s to come in the regular season.

Particularly with a start-up operation like the Ravens – first time head coach in Jesse Minter who is also calling the plays on defense – and a 30-year offensive coordinator in Declan Doyle who has never called a play in a regular-season game, they want to safeguard the element of surprise as much as possible. But they also need to get their least experienced players of import most comfortable with concepts and deployment and quadrants of the field as possible in these few dress rehearsals, and few novice players seem more essential right now than rookie receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, a third-round pick out of USC.

Lane has been the breakout story of Minter’s first training camp, getting the best of veteran defensive backs in a secondary that might be the best in football day after day. It hasn’t just been practice after practice – and let’s be real, many of these drills are set up for the offensive to thrive – but also in team sessions and, now in his preseason debut. It’s not just the one-hand grabs and acrobatic stuff, but also the ease with which it seems to come and his body control and knowing when to glide and when to sprint. And then handling it all with aplomb off the field and adopting an impressive mentality and demeanor.

But there were most definitely some major clues about his role on this team revealed through his usage against the Eagles. Even amid a “starting offense” that was devoid of almost all true first-team talent except for 14th overall pick starting guard Vega Ioane, a study of the routes Lane ran and where he ran them from and how the offense operated when he did as much offers telling clues into what is likely in store as soon as Week 1.

“Honestly, his demeanor,” Minter said when asked what impressed him most about Lane following his big night against the Eagles. “He doesn't lack confidence, but he's pretty humble as well. He works really hard. He kind of knows when to be serious and when he can be himself, which is just a little more out there sometimes.

“But I love his personality. I want him to shine, and [I'll] just [tell him] 'keep doing what you're doing, keep doing what got you here.' It's been working, and I am really happy with how he's done so far."

Where Did Lane Do His Best Work?

Catching three targets for 38 yards and a touchdown in about a half of work doesn’t really tell all that much. Lane understands how to position and contort his body, he has a clear aggression for the football “he attacks the football,” is how two-time MVP QB Lamar Jackson has explained it and he is going to be someone who it seems like will be able to do a lot of damage in the middle of the field, posting up, cutting across the face of the defense with that 6-foot-4 frame (Jackson loves big targets) as a Joker WR/TE of sorts.

All three balls Lane caught were in the middle of the field. Now this was an incredibly rudimental offense with a QB who was an unknown as an un-drafted kid out of UCONN (Joe Fagnano was exceptional in this game), and these were high-percentage plays not pushing the ball downfield. I’m not getting carried away with that aspect of things.

I would not that Lane was stationed outside on 17 snaps and in the slot for 9 snaps. And when he was in the slot the Ravens QB dropped back on six occasions. That is what transpired on those plays:

2nd-and-8: Huntley to Matthew Hibner for 29 yards

1st-and-10: Sack (Huntley)

2nd-and-9: Fagnano to Devontez Walker for 8 yards

2nd-and-3: Fagnano to Walker for 19 yards

2nd-and-7: Fagnano to Hibner for 2 yards

3rd-and-5: Fagnano to Lane for 16-yard TD

I’m not great at math, but that’s 5/5 in the passing game for 74 yards and a TD with Lane in that role. Now, they ran the ball three times with Lane in the slot and picked up 10 total yards and this entire rookie class of tight ends and receivers are going to take their licks at the line of scrimmage, I think. But they have so much on the positive side to dip into early on with Lane.

"It's special, man,” Fagnano said of working with Lane. “He is a special player. He's really young, but he is a really good football player, and his ceiling is so high that he's just going to continue to improve each and every day, and it's a lot of fun."

Being able to gain that inside leverage on in-cutting routes seems like a natural jump-off point for Lane, and it’s not surprising that’s what was going on with the TD grab.

“An in-cut,” Lane said in describing the scoring play. “I tried to press space, come out looking for the ball, and from there, just get in the end zone. I have done it a bunch of times during Training Camp, OTAs, and I think that just goes to show that it is no different on game day."

Of his 17 routes run, five were crossers, and only one required him to break outside. We know from college he likes go routes and grabbing that back-shoulder fade. My hunch is a fair amount of his early targets will be when is in the slot with Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman on the outside, especially in that personnel when the Ravens are between the 20s. And then in the redzone, I suspect his opportunities to make plays on the ball aligned on the boundary increase.

The Ravens have to further unlock Flowers – especially in redzone and goal-to-go situations – and having this long and lanky body type on the field with him in those instances might help, especially if Lane is burning defenses in the middle of the field with comebacks and crossers as Flowers has in the past. Lane showed up early making a splash play on a under-center, play action pass from Huntley, and those foundational changes to the way the Ravens operate should help him get downfield.

So far, everything has gone ridiculously well for Lane. That’s going to change in the regular season when he faces elite defensive backs and challenges he’s never faced before.

His ability to handle so much immediate success speaks to how he will deal with some of that adversity and Doyle is going to play to his strengths in terms of how much he is used very early in the season and where he is aligned.

"I think it is super fun to be a part of a hype train, but at the same time, this all can go down by one dropped ball,” Lane observed after the game. “I mean (not) to say that I am planning on it happening, but I know very well it can happen. But at same time, I am still going to be the same person every day.

“I'll still come to work with my guys and rely on them just like they rely on me. I think being able to have that mindset every day, I am just super blessed to be able to be in this position and rely on guys like this."

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