Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has fired back at broadcaster and former NFL player Chris Simms over comments he made about OTAs.

Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens are a player and a team that you can best describe as ‘nearly men’, because despite some impressive numbers on both of their ends, they haven’t managed to turn that into a Super Bowl win or indeed an appearance just yet.

From 2016-2020, the Ravens never finished lower than second in the AFC North, went to the playoffs three times and even managed to grab the AFC’s #1 seed back in 2019 in a year that saw Jackson win league MVP, John Harbaugh win Head Coach of the Year and Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman take home Assistant Coach of the Year, but alas it hasn’t yielded any silverware just yet.

Last season was certainly a disappointment for them as a raft of injuries blighted them throughout the course of the season, meaning they ended the campaign 8-9 and 4th in the AFC North. Assuming they don’t have the same misfortune this year, then you would think they should be contending near the top of the division once again and might even make a run in the playoffs. 

Lamar to the rescue once more?

Part of the reason behind the Ravens’ run has been down to the play of Jackson, the supremely athletic duel-threat quarterback who is just as adept with his feet as he is with his arm, having put up 9,967 passing yards and 84 touchdowns through the air whilst rushing for a further 3,673 yards and 21 touchdowns:

And having missed a large part of last season due to injury, you would think that he might want to be back into the rhythm of things as soon as possible so that he can help get the team back to winning ways. But as OTAs start, he is nowhere to be seen.

With these activities being voluntary, he is well within his rights not to attend, however his absence has irked Chris Simms who tore into him on ProFootball Talk, appearing to question his competitiveness:

Lamar fires back

Jackson though has taken issue with Simms’ comments and he let him have it with both barrels as he responded on Twitter:

Where this is ultimately going to lead to, it’s hard to say, but you feel that even though what he is missing is voluntary, it is something that could come back to haunt Jackson if he doesn’t do well this season, as he might have just given people a stick to beat him with if things don’t go swimmingly for him and the Ravens.