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Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff Writer
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson participated in his first offseason practice on Tuesday since May 22, and the reigning Most Valuable Player was on top of his game in his return.
In a scaled-back workout where players didn’t wear helmets, Jackson’s first pass went to tight end Mark Andrews in the corner of the end zone. On one of his final throws, Jackson hit wide receiver Zay Flowers in a very tight window for another touchdown pass.
“I mean, Lamar Jackson is Lamar Jackson,” Ravens wide receiver Nelson Agholor said after Tuesday’s practice. “He does an amazing job of just kind of going through his progression. He has unreal arm angles, but he also just knows how to see everything the way he needs to see it in the game and when the defense is giving you something.”
It was surprising to see Jackson walk onto the field Tuesday — he had missed four of the first five voluntary organized team activities (OTAs) this spring. This is the final week of voluntary workouts for Baltimore, which will hold mandatory minicamp next week.
Neither Jackson nor Ravens coach John Harbaugh were scheduled to speak to reporters Tuesday.
Last week, when asked if it was disappointing to see Jackson skip a majority of the team’s OTAs, Harbaugh said, “It’s this time of year; it’s a voluntary time. It’s really not something that we comment on. We can’t, and that’s just the time of year it is. So I can’t speak for anybody that’s not here.”
Jackson and the Ravens offense showed rustiness at times. There were instances when Baltimore took too long to break the huddle, and there was an incompletion to Agholor because of a miscommunication.
“I always say [that] people don’t realize how cerebral Lamar Jackson is,” Agholor said. “The conversations he has with you, one-on-one, about what he sees and what you may see … Like, even today … I’ll be honest, I had an in-cut, basic [route], and my mannerisms were the reason why I didn’t complete the [catch], because I saw something, and he saw something else.”
When they got to the sideline, Jackson showed him the film.
“He was like, ‘Yo, Nelly, the reason why I’m thinking [that you should] keep going is because I look at this nickel, and I see his body language,’ [and] I say, ‘Well, I did take a snapshot of the nickel, and I thought he was going to drop,'” Agholor said. “But he said, ‘He’s not going to get there by the time I’m going to zip it; I’m going to zip it two yards, here.’ And that was what makes a special quarterback special.”