Former Ravens WR Steve Smith Sr. heavily criticizes Greg Roman’s passing scheme

After losing to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional round, fans of the Ravens and media members have begun calling out the lack of passing success by the Baltimore Ravens, including former wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. On NFL GameDay, he didn’t mince words of his critique on offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s passing concepts being “elementary.”

“I speak from a wide receivers perspective. There are times when stories are coming out that some of the wide receivers can’t get separation. Well, when you’re running the type of route combination—very elementary school, very cracker jack-like, very easily to defend, you can’t necessarily put it all on the wide receivers. If you have, ‘You two go deep, you two go shallow and Lamar, throw to whoever’s open.” That’s just not the NFL. That’s not the complexity in the NFL and their passing is not very complex. I just believe Greg Roman’s a fantastic coordinator. However, that fantastic coordinator needs to start looking for a job somewhere else because I believe that his time has expired on this offense [in Baltimore]. If you want Lamar Jackson to continue to be a stellar quarterback, an MVP-type of quarterback, you need to implement a second notch or a third level of the passing game that makes it a little bit more complicated because it’s not very complicated. My 6-year-old who is asleep right now can probably run this offense as well.”

Smith Sr., as I mentioned, did not hold back.

These criticisms feel valid, especially after last night. It piles on when you take note of this team placing dead-last in passing for the 2020 regular season and 27th last season. There is talent in the wide receiver room but it’s become clear there’s a fault as to why they haven’t been successful pushing the ball downfield through the air.