Lamar Jackson and I were finishing up our conversation, maybe a half hour after his Ravens’ latest rabbit-out-of-a-hat win, and we’d just gone back to a talk we had in August about his game, and where it was going. And I reminded the 24-year-old quarterback of the narrative that was being discussed then—that the NFL had figured its 2019 MVP out.
, I asked,
Jackson laughed, in a sort of endearing way.
He knew the truth then, and he knows it now. At this point, everyone else should, too.
The Ravens are 6–2, and they’re 6–2, having survived a rash of injuries in a lot of key places, largely of the strides that Jackson’s made, and he’s not the same player he was when he lit the league on fire two years ago. He’s unequivocally a better passer than he was in 2019. He has better command of Baltimore’s offense. He’s more capable of performing in the two-minute offense.
And all that’s been most apparent on Sundays like this one. The Ravens were down 17–3 in the waning moments of the first half against the Vikings, and down 24–10 after Minnesota rookie Kene Nwangwu took the opening kickoff of the second half back 98 yards. They needed to make the most of every possession in the second half, after fumbling around in the first half. They needed to overcome an overtime turnover of Jackson’s own.
They needed to do all of it without Ronnie Stanley, J.K. Dobbins or Gus Edwards, all of whom are out for the year. Or Sammy Watkins or Latavius Murray, both out this week.
Jackson never blinked at any of that, and in the process has beaten another rap against him. Sunday’s 34–31 win over Minnesota was his third comeback from a double-digit deficit this year, with this one joining similarly dramatic wins over the Chiefs and Colts, to make him the only quarterback in the league to have that many to this point. Which, of course, knocks down the idea that a Jackson-led offense can’t come from behind—he had been 0–6 as a starter in games where he trailed by 10 or more points before this run.
When I brought that up, Jackson simply said, “Well, we’re trying to change the narrative.”
The result of that effort?
Baltimore might be the best team in the AFC. And Jackson might be the league MVP again, just in a different way than he was before.
