It’s surprisingly difficult to have a rational conversation about Lamar Jackson. Jackson is arguably the most entertaining player to watch in the entire sport. He’s a human highlight reel and he’s a former NFL MVP. With that comes expectations to be the best and win a Super Bowl.
Jackson has a 1-3 record in the postseason. Not that wins should be qualified as a quarterback stat, but we all know that they are in the minds of many fans and media. In Jackson’s first playoff game, a chunk of fans were chanting for John Harbaugh to pull him in favor of Joe Flacco. The next year the Ravens offense stalled against the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs. The Ravens got playoff revenge in Tennessee in 2020, but fell to the Bills. The fact that Baltimore is going into year five with Jackson and they have only one playoff win with him is a little sobering. It is the main source of ammunition for those who Jackson just can’t win over.
At a certain point Jackson has to put the team over the hump. Even if he does, many of these critics will never be satisfied.
Jackson has been a winner in the regular season. When he took over for Flacco in 2018, the Ravens went on a 6-1 tear to win an improbable division title. He steered his team to 14 wins in 2019. He got them back to the playoffs in 2020. The Ravens have won 37 games with Jackson being their biggest star. Jackson is stacking up records and accolades, while being the most prominent Ravens player since Ray Lewis. There is a contrast between unprecedented success and heavy disappointments.
You can feel it in the air.
Jackson has always been polarizing. It doesn’t make much sense though. Part of it is the burden of these expectations. It’s the cost of balancing being a superstar without being able to get past the divisional round. Part of it though, is the content-craved, booming media business that sparks polarization.
ESPN’s Get Up just put out their Top 10 Quarterback Rankings. Jackson was left off of the show’s rankings. This is great business for ESPN. They were probably laughing in the production meeting thinking about how much debate and attention this list would inspire. The show tweeted out the QB rankings. They got what they wanted: 2,933 quote tweets, 2,802 likes. Much of the conversation is about Jackson being left out.
Dak Prescott got the 10th spot. Including the prolific field general of the Dallas Cowboys in favor of the Ravens QB is just good business sense. Deshaun Watson got the ninth spot on the list. When’s the last time he played football? The only thing he’s done for anyone lately is settle cases of alleged sexual misconduct. So he’s number nine, that’s great for attention.
This opened the door for Ryan Clark, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky to have segments and tweets speaking out about Jackson’s exclusion. It propelled the conversation and it boosted the engagement of ESPN and their show. It’s okay to have a sincere debate. It’s another when both sides of a tired argument go over the top in both directions. These three defending Jackson are absolutely correct, but they’re just playing their part in this little game, even if the thoughts are heartfelt.
There’s no doubting where I stand on this. I think Jackson is the best thing that could have happened to the franchise. I think Jackson is special. That being said, if the point of this post was to lionize Jackson it would be white noise. It would only propel the debate that these companies need.
The bar always moves for Jackson. First, he can’t do it as a passer. He led the league in touchdown passes in 2019. Then it was, he couldn’t come from behind. 442 yards against the Colts on Monday night in 2021 would say otherwise. When he proves somebody wrong, that’s when you hear how unsustainable his style of football is. As long as there is never a consensus about Jackson the national sports media wins. CBS Sports, ESPN, NFL Network, it doesn’t matter. As long as Jackson is a superstar they’re talking about him. As long as nobody can agree which category of quarterbacks he should be clumped with, they get the engagement they want.
You can’t win talking about Jackson on social media. On Twitter, every critique of Jackson is taken as a sign of being a “hater.” Even after the win over the Browns where Jackson tossed four inexplicably bad interceptions, you had to be safe with what you said on Ravens Twitter. Jackson should be looked at like any other player. His failures should be scrutinized and his success should be celebrated. But a manufactured polarization makes it un-fun to have an opinion either way.
We haven’t even talked about the tension surrounding Jackson’s lack of a long-term contract yet. Despite no sign of either side being all that contentious, it’s been a major drama of the offseason. Jackson doesn’t have an agent and this process has been unconventional. For NFL contract standoffs though, this seems fairly tame. Everything that has been reported leads to the conclusion that a deal is a matter of when and not a matter of if. The headlines always lean into the doubt. They have to keep this as a troubling situation, even if the Ravens and Jackson both have every intention and expectation of reaching an amicable deal.
Jackson is a special quarterback and putting him in the top five is more than reasonable. The ESPN show made a list that you can absolutely get upset about. You can argue into the white noise if you choose to. It’s probably better to let Jackson’s play talk for you. He has a habit of proving people wrong.
But the great debate about Jackson can never end.
It gets too many people the attention and online engagement they crave.
