Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is the favorite to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award for a second consecutive season and third time in his career.
But given the fact that Jackson failed to make it to the AFC Championship, does that take away his title of being the best quarterback in the league?
Bleacher Report writer Gary Davenport seems to think so, placing Jackson at No. 2 in his quarterback rankings behind Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes.
“Jackson’s lack of success in the postseason is going to haunt him until he crests that hill,” Davenport writes.
“But he remains quite possibly the single-hardest player in the entire NFL to defend. Jackson’s 915 rushing yards led all quarterbacks — and broke Michael Vick’s career record for rushing yards at the position. He also threw for the sixth-most passing yards and second-most passing scores in the league. Jackson led the league in touchdown percentage, yards per attempt, air yards per attempt and passer rating. Other than that, he was just OK.”
The MVP award is based on performance in the regular season, so playoff performance and success doesn’t have anything to do with it. But Jackson’s placement at No. 2 behind Mahomes has everything to do with the postseason.
Mahomes had his worst statistical season since he became the Chiefs starter in 2018 with 3,928 passing yards and 26 touchdowns, both career-lows. The numbers are still good, but they don’t translate to what Jackson was able to do this season for the Ravens.
Jackson had a career-high 4,172 passing yards with 41 touchdowns on top of rushing for 915 yards.
It’s clear that Jackson had the better performance this season, but until he gets that playoff monkey off his back, he will always be No. 2 behind Mahomes.
