Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s arm and legs combine to make him the most efficient and effective quarterback in the NFL.
Entering Week 12, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was already the frontrunner for the NFL’s MVP award. Though he didn’t need to prove himself further as one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Jackson did exactly that against the Los Angeles Rams and their vaunted defense.
He ran around them with his legs and was just shy of perfect through the air en route to a 45-6 dominant victory that saw him relieved by backup Robert Griffin III in the fourth quarter. Jackson finished the game, going 15-of-20 for 169 passing yards, with five touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 139.4 passer rating. He added another 95 rushing yards on eight attempts just for good measure.
With yet another amazing game, Jackson has proven himself to be the best overall quarterback in the league.
Each and every week we hear how Jackson is going to get figured out or excuses for why someone isn’t a complete believer yet. Whether it’s people saying to throw out extra defensive backs to contain him in the pocket or to load up the box to force him to throw under duress, no defense has really figured out how to stop Jackson, and it’s not for a lack of trying or talent.
Against the New England Patriots’ top-ranked defense, Jackson torched them for 224 total yards and three total touchdowns (rushing and passing) in a 37-20 rout. Against the Texans’ solid defense, Jackson had a combined 301 yards and four touchdown passes, knocking Houston’s rankings down a few pegs. Against the Rams’ 11th-ranked defense, Jackson threw five touchdowns and nearly had 100 yards on the ground in spite of playing just three quarters of football.
Yet, we’re likely going to hear about how Jackson and the Ravens need to beat the San Francisco 49ers in dominant fashion for people to truly believe. And when asked why someone isn’t fully on the Jackson-train, it’s his passing yardage that gets called into question.
Passing yards are far too often used as the biggest metric to determine a quarterback’s worth in the NFL and by some of the most notorious of pundits. With Jackson on pace to barely crack 3,500 passing yards this season, it’s far too easy to dismiss what he’s done in 2019. Yet, it’s the efficiency at which Jackson has struck that should really impress.
Jackson’s TD:INT ratio is nearly 5:1 right now. He’s tied with Russell Wilson for the most touchdown passes in the league but Jackson has the highest TD% among quarterbacks with more than 13 attempts. He hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 5, though he now has two games with five touchdown passes this season. He has two games with a perfect 158.3 passer rating this season — something just two other quarterbacks have ever done before (Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger). He’s tied for the third-highest passer rating in the NFL.
That right there is already enough evidence to at least put Jackson in the discussion as the best quarterback in the league. But he’s so much more than just his arm, even if Jackson really wants people to assess him as a passer first and foremost.
Jackson currently has 876 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 124 carries this season. He’s ranked ninth in the NFL in rushing yards, tied for 11th in rushing touchdowns and his 7.1 yard-per-carry average is first by a wide margin (1.3 yards-per-carry over second place). Jackson is on pace to not just beat Michael Vick’s single-season rushing record but blow it completely out of the water.
There’s not another quarterback like Jackson in this league and that’s often the problem when trying to compare and rank him. The name we most often seen thrown around is Vick for obvious reasons. But even taking the best separate passing and rushing seasons from Vick’s career and combining them wouldn’t match what Jackson’s on pace to do this year.
Like it or not, we can’t look at Jackson and measure him by the same exact metrics as the rest of the league’s quarterbacks. We have to combine his rushing and passing totals and where they rank to get even the slightest insight on how impressive Jackson actually is. When doing that, it’s crystal clear that Jackson is the NFL’s best quarterback at this point.
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