Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Having quarterbacked the Baltimore Ravens to 13 wins in 16 games and home-field advantage throughout the NFL playoffs, Lamar Jackson rested his case, sitting out last Sunday’s season finale against Pittsburgh.
Baltimore had nothing to gain as the AFC’s top seed, and Jackson had nothing to lose as the league’s presumptive Most Valuable Player. If voters were uncertain before his last game, against Miami, he nailed the closing argument, throwing for 321 yards and five touchdowns with a perfect passer rating.
Jackson turned 27 on Sunday, but validation never gets old.
He’s on the verge of making NFL history as the first Heisman Trophy winner to win multiple MVP awards. And while other contenders are likely to receive votes this season, Jackson (2019) remains the only player besides Tom Brady (2010) to win the award unanimously.
“Not bad for a running back,” Jackson joked with reporters following the 2019 season opener, when he posted his first perfect passer rating. He finished that campaign with the NFL single-season rushing record for quarterbacks, 1,206 yards, previously held by Michael Vick.
Jackson doesn’t run as often as he did earlier in his career when the Ravens’ offense was less creative and more reliant on his legs. But he’s still among the league’s most dynamic and explosive ball carriers, the skillset that overshadows his passing ability. That was the knock against him in 2018 and it remains in place today.
“I want my quarterbacks to be quarterbacky,” FOX Sports Radio’s Monse Bolaños said Dec. 28 after Baltimore destroyed the San Franciso 49ers. “To me, Lamar Jackson is just a great athlete.”
Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian thought Jackson was a great athlete who needed to switch to wide receiver.
“Short and a little bit slight,” Polian said ahead of the 2018 draft. “Clearly, clearly not the thrower that the other guys are.” As Jackson tore up the league en route to the 2019 MVP, Polian recanted. “ I was wrong,” he told USA Today, “because I used the old, traditional quarterback standard with him.”
The old, traditional standard. Or in other words, “quarterbacky.”
Not long ago, the league excluded QBs who looked like Jackson and scrambled like Barry Sanders. Black pioneers like James Harris, Doug Williams and Warren Moon more often fit the NFL’s standard mold as opposed to breaking it. They proved themselves by standing and delivering passes from the pocket, just like the white quarterbacks who rarely took off and ran.
The NFL’s early Black QBs weren’t allowed to play in the fashion of stereotypical Black QBs, the dual-threat weapons with adjectives like “mobile” or “running” quarterback. The torch has been passed from Randall Cunningham to Michael Vick to Cam Newton to Jackson, who has obliterated the position’s realm of possibility.
But his success still comes with skepticism and scrutiny based on injuries in 2021 and 2022, and his 1-3 career record in playoff games.
Jackson’s future in Baltimore was uncertain last offseason when contract negotiations stalled and he requested a trade. Instead, the Ravens used a non-exclusive franchise tag on him, allowing him to be an unrestricted free agent but giving them the right to match any team’s offer. Except no other teams even attempted to sign him.
In fact, several quarterback-needy teams couldn’t wait to express their disinterest in the 2019 MVP nearing the prime of his career.
He re-signed in April for $260 million over five years — with $185 mil guaranteed — and since then has played some of his best ball ever, posting career-highs in completion percentage, interception rate and yards per pass attempt. No player has rushed for more yards per carry (5.5). No player causes opposing coaches to lose more sleep.
“He’s unlike anybody else,” Miami defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said before Jackson shredded the Dolphins in Week 17. “The pure definition of a great quarterback is there’s no one way to play him. If there was, everybody would do it.”
Fangio said Vick is the only NFL quarterback like Jackson in the last 50 years. But there aren’t enough compliments or MVP trophies to make Jackson forget going 32nd in the draft, attracting zero interest last offseason and being frequently overlooked in “elite quarterback” conversations.
He can’t forget any of that because it fuels his fire.
“I definitely do have that chip on my shoulder,” Jackson said Monday on Tom Brady’s “Let’s Go!” podcast. “I haven’t accomplished what I wanted to yet, so that’s why that chip is still on my shoulder. I want that Super Bowl. That’s the accolade that I really want so bad.”
Winning a ring won’t make him a traditional QB.
He’ll settle for being a champion.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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