If Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is going to win the MVP award, it’s going to have to be based on what he did over the first 16 games of the season.
According to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, Jackson will not play in his team’s season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday. Tyler Huntley will start in his place.
Jackson will end his campaign with 3,678 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 67.2 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 102.7. In addition, he rushed for 821 yards and five scores while averaging 5.5 yards per carry.
The 26-year-old is considered the MVP favorite heading into Week 18 and may very well have wrapped up the award this past weekend when he went 18-for-21 with 321 yards and five touchdown passes in a blowout win over the Miami Dolphins, which clinched the No. 1 overall seed for the Ravens.
Jackson, who played his collegiate football at Louisville, was selected by Baltimore with the 32nd overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft.
He began his rookie year playing behind Joe Flacco, but ultimately supplanted Flacco as the starting signal-caller midway through the season.
Jackson would ultimately lead Baltimore to the playoffs, representing the most lethal dual threat quarterback that the league had seen since Michael Vick.
Then, during his sophomore campaign, Jackson took home MVP honors after leading the NFL with 36 touchdown passes and setting the single-season quarterback rushing record with 1,206 yards on the ground. Most importantly, he led the Ravens to a 14-2 record, which was the best in football.
This is certainly Jackson’s best season since that dominant 2019 run, but this time around, he is certainly hoping for more playoff success.
In spite of Jackson’s heroics and Baltimore owning the league’s best record in 2019, the team lost in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Lamar Jackson has only won one postseason game in his career, but he is looking to change that this winter.
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