Harbaugh downplays Jackson pick: 'Joe Flacco is our quarterback'

Lamar Jackson may be the quarterback of the future for the Baltimore Ravens, but head coach John Harbaugh said Thursday night he won't be the one of the present.

"(Jackson's) a great quarterback, but Joe Flacco is our quarterback," Harbaugh told reporters after Baltimore traded up to take the ex-Louisville star 32nd overall, according to Jamison Hensley of ESPN. "That's the thing we got to remember. Lamar is going to have a great chance to develop. When you get to this stage in a quarterback's career, you've seen done in New England and you've seen done in a lot of places. This doesn't really change things in a sense that we're going to go with Joe and he's going to roll."

The dynamic Jackson, a former Heisman Trophy winner, brings a completely different skill set to the Ravens compared to Flacco, who is a traditional pocket passer. But that doesn't mean Baltimore is ready to overhaul its offense and anoint Jackson the starter, or even Flacco's successor.

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"You can't make a lot of assumptions like that," said Harbaugh, who won Super Bowl XLVII with Flacco. "The Patriots drafted a quarterback (Jimmy Garoppolo) and traded him. You take it one year at a time in this league. Predict the future and say what's going to happen down the road, nobody knows."

Flacco, a first-round pick of the Ravens in 2008, hasn't posted a quarterback rating higher than 83.5 since 2014, and has no guaranteed money left on his contract beyond the 2018 season.

Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said Flacco wasn't informed of the Jackson selection ahead of time, though Harbaugh reached out to him shortly after the pick was made.

For all the pre-draft talk that Jackson may be better suited to play wide receiver in the NFL, Harbaugh said the 21-year-old is a quarterback "through and through."