When a player as dominant as Lamar Jackson tumbles 67 places in a ranking made, in part, by his fellow NFL players, people are going to have strong reactions, but the Baltimore Ravens probably didn’t expect a former rival to be quite so vocal and blunt about calling out those who doubt their star quarterback.
Ryan Clark did battle with the Ravens at least twice a season for eight years, and while he never faced Jackson, the former Pittsburgh Steelers safety has strong words for those who think No. 8 deserved to fall so far in the league’s annual top-100 rankings.
Clark told ESPN’s First Take, “Outside of Patrick Mahomes, there is no more accomplished quarterback in the entire NFL individually. There’s no quarterback who carries more than Lamar Jackson. There’s no quarterback who’s asked to do more than Lamar Jackson. There’s no quarterback who you have to have a game plan for in the run game. “You have to have a game plan for in the pass game. And then you have to have a secondary game plan for when he does Lamar Jackson type stuff.”
Jackson’s enduring ability to pose unique challenges to defenses has Clark scratching his head about people believing the two-time NFL MVP is in decline. The slide for Jackson is part of an offseason narrative about the supposed growing vulnerability of the Ravens’ most important player.
“Disrespect” Nothing New for Lamar Jackson
Being slighted at the first sign of trouble is nothing new for Jackson. It’s nothing new for a gifted quarterback who was once advised to switch to playing wide receiver in order to make it in the pros.
Jackson has made his career out of proving the doubters wrong, but his supporters have gotten used to still hearing the naysayers. As Clark put it, “That’s disrespect I expected. I expected executives to not know where to place him. I expected marketers and brands to not understand the power of his voice. What I didn’t expect is dudes who have to line up in pads on Sundays and Thursdays and Wednesdays and Fridays and whatever the hell other days that we’re going to see NFL games this year, to not understand how scary it is to walk on the field when this dude is right.”
Opposing players seemingly forgetting how tough a fully healthy Jackson is to corral, has left Clark to conclude the latest ranking is “not just disrespectful. It’s almost stupid that he is ranked so low, and I don’t know if he cares about it at all, but this says a lot about this league and how quickly we forget what Lamar Jackson has accomplished.”
Clark is right to defend Jackson’s continued excellence as a playmaker. A trend summed up by this almost absurd escape from pressure and scoring connection with Zay Flowers against the Steelers last season.
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Unfortunately, this play wasn’t enough for the Ravens to edge Clark’s old team in the win-or-go-home battle to close the 2025 campaign. Losing too many big games is at the root of the growing doubts about Jackson.
Yet, the brunt of the responsibility for many of those defeats hardly belongs to Jackson.
Ravens Have Found Ways to Lose With Star Quarterback
A mediocre 3-5 playoff record has frustrated Jackson more and more over the years. It’s also created a fresh narrative for those inclined to doubt the four-time Pro Bowler.
The argument was spelled out and endorsed by Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports. He stated on an episode of “The Herd” how “For years and years, you guys kept telling me, ‘you gotta get out of the Lamar business,’ and I’m like, ‘I know. He’s not good in the playoffs, 84 passer rating in the playoffs, lower than Ryan Tannehill.’ There’s nothing I can say about it, I think he gets nervous.”
Cowherd argued younger quarterbacks are already superior to Jackson when it matters most: “Caleb Williams, to me now, is a much better quarterback. Caleb Williams, last year had seven, seven! winning drives or fourth-quarter comebacks, seven! Lamar Jackson had one… I’d take Bo Nix today in a 4th quarter come from behind situation over Lamar.”
Elevating a couple of second-year pros above Jackson based on a single season’s worth of sampling is a stretch for two reasons. First, many of Jackson’s near misses in clutch games can be attributed to the mistakes of other players.
Mistakes like rookie kicker Tyler Loop missing the 44-yard field goal attempt that would have sent the Steelers home before last season’s playoffs. There’s also All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews, usually ‘Mr. Reliable’ for Jackson, inexplicably dropping what should have been a sure two-point conversion to tie against the Buffalo Bills during the 2024 postseason.
Jackson had done his part to help the Ravens win both of those games, but fate and human error had other ideas. Speaking of ideas, Jackson hasn’t always been helped by some strange game-plans in the playoffs, notably when then-offensive coordinator Todd Monken bizarrely shelved the league’s best running game against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2023 AFC Championship Game.
Better strategies are now the responsibility of Monken’s replacement Declan Doyle and new head coach Jesse Minter. They have fresh ideas, but their success will hinge, like it always does for the Ravens, on the talents of Jackson.
Fortunately, he’s still one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks, even if some of the Ravens’ rivals need a reminder.
Ravens Rival Blasts ‘Almost Stupid’ Lamar Jackson Narrative