John Harbaugh has had a front-row seat to Lamar Jackson's incredible on-field escapades for seven years. In that time, he's seen his playmaking quarterback win the NFL MVP twice and set himself up for a third. Harbaugh has watched as Jackson escapes what looks like certain doom over and over again, extending plays and taking chances that, more often than not, work out quite well for the Baltimore Ravens.
But it seems like every game is an opportunity for the coach to rediscover just how special his quarterback is. Mic'd up audio from the Ravens' 28-14 NFL wild card victory over the rival Pittsburgh Steelers is out and it features a few different bits of improvisation by Jackson in which someone encourages him to throw the ball away only to be thrilled with the result after Jackson did not heed such advice.
The first comes on the Ravens radio call and the second is from Harbaugh himself.
"Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable," Harbaugh says after the Baltimore touchdown,. "I've never seen anything like that. I'm like 'throw it away, throw it away, throw it away.'
Pretty cool that Jackson could find new ways to surprise his coach after all these years. Coaching is about the X's and O's and the Jimmies and Joes. But it's also about the no, no, nos that turn into yeses. Harbaugh is lucky to have someone on his side who does that with surprising regularity.