Ex-Ravens OC Marty Mornhinweg Refutes Story About Wanting Lamar Jackson at WR

Former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg clarified in a statement that he never wanted to move quarterback Lamar Jackson to wide receiver, via Daniel Oyefusi of the Baltimore Sun.

"My thoughts before the draft, and even more when we started working with Lamar, was that this young man was going to be a special quarterback," Mornhinweg said. 

Head coach John Harbaugh offered his support: "Organizationally, we were on the same page with Lamar. ... Marty was excited from the beginning to coach Lamar and was instrumental in helping him progress through his rookie season."   

The statement comes after Jared Dubin of CBS Sports highlighted comments by former NFL general manager Mike Lombardi on The GM Shuffle podcast. Lombardi said Mornhinweg asked, "When are we gonna move [Jackson] to receiver?"

The Louisville product is now the favorite to win the MVP award, but leading up to the 2018 NFL draft, there was a narrative that he wouldn't be a successful signal-caller at the next level. After all, the first thing that jumps out is his elusiveness and his speed in the open field, which he has used to torch opposing defenses all season.

Yet, Baltimore wouldn't be 8-2 and on the short list of Super Bowl contenders if Jackson were just an athlete at quarterback instead of someone who can hurt defenses with his arm and his legs. He threw for a combined 445 yards, seven touchdowns and zero interceptions during the last two wins over the Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans, and he has Baltimore atop the AFC North standings by three games.

The Ravens moved on from Mornhinweg after the 2018 season and promoted Greg Roman to offensive coordinator.

Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk pointed out, "It's rare for a team to put out a statement on behalf of a coach who no longer works there, but the Ravens clearly take issue with any suggestion that they ever saw Jackson as anything other than their franchise quarterback."