John Harbaugh certainly took hold of the 2024 NFL talking season yesterday when he made his “vision for Lamar Jackson” remarks.
Harbaugh said that he envisions Lamar Jackson becoming the greatest NFL quarterback of all time. It was a bold soliloquy, and it has sports talking heads all across America providing takes that are hotter than the current forecast for Phoenix, AZ.
Despite the insolent noise, Baltimore Ravens legend Qadry Ismail provided the perfect take.
The two-time 1,000-yard receiver with the Ravens explained exactly what Harbaugh was doing and why with his hyperbolic remarks.
“For the rankings of quarterbacks, and you look at his resume versus other guys, and they’re putting guys like C.J. Stroud ahead of him,” Ismail said while appearing as a guest on Zach Gelb’s SiriusXM radio show.
“Is C.J. Stroud a good player? Yeah, But is C.J. Stroud a young player that has a resume of Lamar? No.
“Joe Burrow is in our same division, does he have the resume of Lamar? He had a year that was kind of like ok, but then the injury bug kind of hit him.
“Outside of Patrick Mahomes, I just don’t see where all this, oh, Lamar is down on the list when it comes to ranking quarterbacks, and I think from a bigger picture standpoint, you see what John Harbaugh was doing, protecting his guy,
“And I don’t think it was something necessarily directed at Lamar, so much as it is directed at the media and the fans across the league.
“This is who we got, and he’s a damn good quarterback and the guy’s legit, so put some respect on his name.”
.@IamQadryIsmail on why John Harbaugh felt like he had to defend Lamar Jackson publicly. @InfSportsNet pic.twitter.com/0vBpfLXbL1
— Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) July 22, 2024
Gelb then pressed the Super Bowl XXXV champion on whether he believes Jackson is the second-best quarterback in the entire league, behind only Mahomes.
Ismail didn’t fully commit to that and instead restated what he had already said about QB resumes.