Lamar Jackson finds himself on a Ravens roster with a 33-year-old Joe Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP who averaged a career-low 5.7 yards per attempt in 2017, represents nearly $25 million dollars on Baltimore's cap in 2018 and would save the team $10 million if he's released before next season. 

Hmmm ...

More importantly, Jackson landed with the perfect assistant coach in Greg Roman. 

You know, Jim Harbaugh's former right-hand man at Stanford and with the 49ers, the guy vital in the unleashing of Colin Kaepernick on the NFL in 2012. 

If there's anyone coaching at the professional ranks today who knows how to slowly infuse a ridiculously athletic, somewhat raw signal-caller into an NFL offense, it's Roman, the Ravens' current assistant head coach. 

Before Kaepernick took over the 49ers starting job in 2012 after Alex Smith was injured against the Rams -- a gig the former Nevada star wouldn't give back to Smith in San Francisco -- Kaepernick was used as a gadget player in Roman's attack. 

From the start of the reason through early November, Kaepernick appeared in five games and went 5 of 9 for 89 yards as a passer. He was sacked twice for a total loss of 17 yards and carried the football 13 times for 111 yards with two rushing touchdowns. That means, on his 24 plays as an offensive feature, Kaepernick's net contributions were 183 yards with a pair of scores, which equates to a robust 7.6 yards per play. 

After that, the rest is history.

Counting the game he filled in for Smith, Kaepernick went on to load the stat sheet with these tremendous figures which include two postseason games and the Super Bowl: 

Completions/Attempts

Completion %

Yards/YPA

TD/INT

Rushes/Yards/YPC/TD

Colin Kaepernick

180/289

62.2

2523/8.7

14/5

75/568/7.57/6

Kaepernick seemingly transcended the quarterback position as a highly efficient passer with gazelle like speed in the open field. 

As a rookie, Kaepernick threw only five passes and completed three for 35 yards. He ran twice for negative two yards. However, when developing an early plan for Jackson in Baltimore, Roman can draw from Kaepernick's breakout year during the quarterback's second NFL season.

(Kaepernick wasn't able to sustain his torrid pace as a passer or runner but did average a respectable 7.3 yards per attempt at 59.5 percent completion with 40 touchdowns and 18 interceptions to go along with 1,163 rushing yards at 5.9 yards per carry with five rushing scores as the 49ers' full-time start over the next two seasons.)

Also, Ravens offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg coached Michael Vick in Philadelphia from 2009 to 2012 then in New York with the Jets in 2014. 

Jackson has two coaches familiar with harnessing rare athletic specimens at quarterback. 

According to Pro Football Focus, Kaepernick averaged about two designed runs per game from 2012 to 2014 with Roman as San Francisco's offensive coordinator. It wouldn't be unreasonable for the Ravens to showcase Jackson around two or three times per outing on designed runs, and he certainly can be a threat to throw the football. 

In fact, it would be smart for the Ravens to give Jackson some in-game reps as a passer too in 2018. Flacco's somewhat unlikely to be on the team in 2019, and he'd have to experience an amazing career resurgence in his mid-30s to still be the starter in 2020. Learning to deal with the speed and complexity of NFL defenses in a low-pressure, sub-package role would be beneficial for Jackson.  

Beyond that, the discrepancy between Flacco and Jackson's skill sets would drive defensive coordinators and their players insane when game-planning and during live action. 

Per Sports Info Solutions, Jackson toted the rock on 114 times for 1,012 yards -- 8.8 yards per -- with 10 touchdowns on option runs in 2017. Bonkers. 

Yes, it would be unconventional, but for a club looking to improve on 5.7 yards per attempt and a league-low 4.6 yards per play last season, no offensive idea should be off limits. And the Ravens spent a first-round pick on Jackson, college football's most electric play-maker of the past three years. They should use him immediately, reap the rewards of doing so in 2018 while simultaneously preparing him for the starting job in 2019.