Recently on his podcast, Mark Schlereth made a critical analysis of Lamar Jackson as a quarterback. And since then, he has been facing a lot of backlash from the public. His main criticism of the Baltimore Ravens’ QB was that despite his stellar performances in the regular season, the QB has been downright mediocre. And while his choice of words has been harsh, Chris Broussard defended Schlereth’s statement while on First Things First.
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While on the show, Broussard spoke about how Mark Schlereth’s analysis wasn’t deserving of the kind of heat it was getting. As he conversed with the other hosts of the podcast, he explained why the actual statement wasn’t such a far-off thing to say. Schlereth’s words explicitly spoke about how Jackson was mediocre on the gridiron during the playoffs. And Broussard agreed. He spoke about how this was an analysis of numbers and percentages.
He said, “You guys know how much I love Lamar. [But] he’s right though. Stink is right. Come playoff time, and I have a graphic here that shows you the winning percentage showed there but 33% in the post everything goes down. Completion percentage, touchdown percentage, and interception percentage go up. But that’s worse and the passer rating drops big time.”
However, while Chris Broussard wasn’t in disagreement with the analysis that Schlereth made, he did mention that it might have been a little harsh. While Jackson hasn’t showcased his full ability in the playoffs, the QB still hasn’t ‘wet the bed’ in Broussard’s opinion. Moreover, Schlereth’s detailed analysis really dug into the Jackson plays.
What did Michael Schlereth say about Lamar Jackson?
While he has been receiving a lot of backlash for his statement, Schlereth’s approach seems to be based on cold and bitter truth. On his podcast, Schlereth spoke about how there is a distinct incongruence between how Jackson performs in the regular season and the playoffs. While Jackson has stellar performances in the regular season, his game in the playoffs has been lacking in the past.
While picking up on this Schlereth simply said, “You wanna talk about the definition of mediocrity, when it comes to playoff football, Lamar Jackson is mediocre come playoff time.” And that’s not all. He even went on to debunk the narrative that has been used to defend Jackson.
For the longest time, Jackson’s playoff performances have been defended by saying that the QB doesn’t have enough weapons on the field. However, Per The Sporting News, Schlereth took down this narrative as he reminded people on his show that the Ravens have drafted multiple first-round receivers since 2018. Moreover, even after their draft, their development as weapons for the QB has been dependent on the QB himself.
While drafting good talent was the Ravens’ job, helping them develop into weapons that could help the offense was Jackson’s job. However, Schlereth believes that due to Jackson’s poor skills in pocket passing, the QB has been directly responsible for not developing good weapons for his offense.
While Schlereth might seem overly critical, his analysis holds some merit. With the kind of record Jackson has produced during the regular season, he should be performing a lot better in the playoffs. However, his 2 regular-season MVP talent is yet to translate into a playoff performance that is memorable. With the pressure of performance all on him this season, Ravens fans will eagerly wait to see if Jackson can prove Schlereth wrong.
