Lamar Jackson’s career has been plagued by doubters from the start but he always seems to rise above the expectations set for him. After being drafted with the 32nd pick by the Baltimore Ravens, Lamar Jackson was immediately met by doubters who questioned his ability to throw the football. Seven years later and Jackson has racked up 20,059 passing yards, a 65% completion percentage, and a touchdown to interception ration of 166 to 49. While those stats are not completely off the charts for a 7th year NFL quarterback, they clearly prove that Jackson has belonged in the league since he got there. Not to mention the many accolades he has gathered since entering the league—including two NFL MVP awards.
When comparing Jackson to other players who have won multiple MVP awards during their careers, we see that every single player—with the exception of Jackson and Patrick Mahomes—has been inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame already, with Jackson and Mahomes both destined to reach Canton eventually. The great players who Jackson shares company with include: Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers. The MVP awards have clearly only been given to the best of the best.
Despite critics calling Jackson “overrated,” he joined the multiple MVP club when he won his second award for his efforts during the 2023 season. He is now likely to win yet another MVP award after his best season ever. While this article aims to validate Lamar Jackson’s football career, this is not a case for his first two MVP awards but rather why Lamar Jackson needs to win the award this year. While his career stats are not insanely remarkable, with 4,172 passing yards, a 67% completion percentage, and an unbelievable touchdown to interception ratio of 41 to 4, it is evident that this is a standalone year for Jackson. As stated, he has already had two different MVP seasons, and yet this year he has the most passing yards he has ever thrown for, the most touchdowns he has thrown for, coupled with the fewest interceptions he has thrown for.
Examining how Lamar Jackson fares up against the competition, this year he ranked 6th in the NFL in passing yards, 2nd in passing touchdowns, 1st in TD:INT ratio, and most impressive of all—a passer rating of 119.6. Not only is his passer rating this year 1st in the league by a hefty margin, it is also the 4th highest passer rating for a single season in NFL history. The two other quarterbacks ahead of his passer rating are Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. All three seasons with passer ratings ahead of Lamar Jackson’s resulted in an MVP award (Rodgers 2011, 2020 and Manning 2004). It is clear that based off of the generational statistics by Lamar Jackson, he should win the MVP award. However, the MVP is never based solely on statistics.
One of the most important rationales by talking heads trying to justify Jackson’s first two MVP awards was that Jackson was simply “doing more with less,” but by this line of thought, maybe Josh Allen deserves to win the award instead. After all, Jackson is sharing a backfield with a future first ballot Hall of Famer at running back. However, I will not attempt to justify Lamar Jackson’s previous MVP seasons as they are meager compared to his impressive 2024 season. I advise you to not subscribe to the “doing more with less” narrative, but rather to look at who the greatest show on turf has been with the greatest stats. Going by the rationale of who had the best year in 2024—it must be Lamar Jackson.