Todd Monken is gone, and so is the shotgun-heavy offense that made Lamar Jackson the most explosive fantasy quarterback alive. New Ravens OC Declan Doyle is pulling Jackson out from behind that 95% shotgun/pistol usage rate and lining him up under center far more than Baltimore ever has. It sounds like a small tweak. It is not.
Doyle's pitch is physicality and unpredictability: more under-center reps, tighter cadence variation to freeze defenses, and an emphasis on execution over improvisation. That last part matters most. The whole point is getting Jackson to trust the design instead of bailing into hero-ball mode when the first read isn't there. Jackson, for his part, is buying in completely, calling Doyle 'a wizard' and praising how hard he's pushed the offense at the line of scrimmage.
Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, watching this new-look offense from across the practice field, didn't hold back either, saying Jackson is simply the best player in the league and makes everyone around him better. That's not a controversial take, but it's a reminder that even after a rough 2025, nobody in the building has stopped building around him.
And 2025 was rough. Jackson missed four games, made just 13 starts, and dealt with a lingering hamstring issue that sapped his signature juice. His rushing numbers cratered to career lows across the board: 67 carries, 349 yards, two touchdowns on the ground. A guy who used to be a must-start cheat code turned into a game-to-game gamble, and he finished the year as fantasy's QB20 after being the QB1 overall in 2024.
That collapse is exactly why this scheme change is a fantasy story, not just an X's-and-O's one. History says Jackson thrives in year one of a new system — he won MVP in his debut season under Greg Roman in 2019 and did it again in year one with Monken in 2023. If that pattern holds a third time, the guy currently going off the board outside the first two rounds on most boards is a serious discount.
Speaking of the board: Jackson's ADP has been all over the place this summer, sitting around QB2 at roughly pick 34 overall on FantasyPros' consensus, but sliding as far back as the fifth round on some sites still spooked by last year's injury history. That gap between talent and price is where fantasy managers make money. If you believe he's healthy and the new scheme unlocks a more efficient, lower-hit passing attack, Jackson in the third round is a gift.
The supporting cast should help too. Baltimore added two wide receivers and two tight ends in the draft, giving Jackson more bodies to spread the ball to if Doyle really is scaling back the freelance scrambling. That's a nice hedge for a quarterback whose fantasy floor has always leaned so heavily on legs — a passing offense that's stickier through the air makes him less boom-or-bust even in weeks the rushing numbers dip.
Watch camp and preseason reps closely for how much under-center work actually shows up in real games, and watch Jackson's conditioning after he reported to camp saying he added boxing to his offseason program specifically to get his legs back under him. If the health checks out and Doyle's system does what it's designed to do, Jackson isn't just a bounce-back candidate — he's arguably the best value at the position in fantasy drafts this month.