The Lamar Jackson hype is greater than the real thing

Sheer luck saved Lamar Jackson from laying an egg on the road against his first legit opponent in 2019. Any other storyline is empty hype for the Ravens QB.

If you read the majority of NFL headlines and listened to the buzz of league analysts heading into Week 3’s showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, you might have believed that Lamar Jackson was the one of two quarterbacks who was the reigning MVP.

On Sunday, the Ravens visited the Chiefs in an early contest for AFC supremacy between two teams already sitting alone at the top of their respective divisions. Through two weeks, both teams were undefeated and steamrolling opponents with relative ease. Both were also led by very impressive young quarterbacks.

Coming into the game, however, Jackson was the one in the brighter immediate spotlight—the result of a newfound passing prowess that complemented his incredible athleticism and running ability. Given that Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs own quarterback, is steadily remarkable, it’s easy to understand why the talking heads end up focusing more on Jackson. His story is more interesting in the moment—something new to discuss rather than find new ways to describe Mahomes ongoing brilliance, I suppose.

The conversation around Jackson, until Sunday, was certainly understandable. Jackson is wildly talented and deserved far more credit for his ability to play quarterback at the professional level than he received coming out of Louisville. The former Heisman winner was a first round pick by a respected franchise yet seemed to face only doubters and detractors when the Ravens picked him as Joe Flacco’s heir apparent.

This year, Jackson is a new man and he’s showed up strong through the first two games of the year. Those wins, however, were against two pitiful teams, including the obviously tanking Miami Dolphins and the Arizona Cardinals, last year’s worst overall team. Context was important to some of Jackson’s numbers, and the question coming into Sunday’s game against the Chiefs was whether or not Jackson could look the part against a better team.

Despite what you heard from the announcers, even during the broadcast of the Ravens’ loss to the Chiefs, the answer is no.

Check out the difference competition made through the first half for Lamar Jackson.

Week 1 – Miami Dolphins

• 10 of 11 completions
• 210 passing yards
• 4 touchdowns
• 158.3 passer rating

Week 2 – Arizona Cardinals

• 12 of 16 completions
• 171 passing yards
• 2 touchdowns
• 148.7 passer rating

Week 3 – Kansas City Chiefs

• 8 of 19 completions
• 75 yards passing
• 0 touchdowns
• 53.6 passer rating

In short, Jackson was miserable in the first half. Those are numbers that would make Josh Rosen wince and Ryan Fitzpatrick shake his head.

Fast forward to the second half and the Ravens running game took over. To Baltimore’s credit, they put up a nice immediate drive on the Chiefs by running the ball. In fact, on the drive that made the game competitive again, Jackson attempted a single pass on a 9-play scoring drive of 75 yards and it was an incomplete throw to tight end Hayden Hurst.

From there, the Ravens crept back into it on plays that look great on the stat sheet for the yards they provide, but if you watched the game, you know what really happens.

Example #1: The desperate heave to Seth Roberts

On this fourth down play, Juan Thornhill is given a chance to blitz on a perfectly timed call, except the rookie safety just isn’t able to completely wrap up Jackson, who rears back and lets it fly to a receiver who shoved off on the play.

Example #2: Another desperation heave to Willie Snead

On third and 17, Jackson rolls out right before throwing irresponsibly across his body into coverage for another lucky catch. Watch the following.

In other words, the stat sheet will tell you that Jackson is growing as a quarterback and his ability to convert long throws on crucial downs in a road game. Yet the box score lies. Apparently so were the announcers during the broadcast, who kept fawning over Jackson’s throws as if these weren’t complete gifts from the gods and could never be replicated if the Ravens tried.

Here’s the thing: Jackson does deserve credit and a lot of it. The fact that his athleticism allows him to escape the pocket to throw to Snead in the first place is what makes him even able to attempt it. His ability to stand strong in the pocket and even rear back such a throw to Roberts instead of going down when wrapped by Thornhill is superb.

Jackson also deserves tons of credit for plays that didn’t rely on luck, of which there were several. There was the nine-yard touchdown run. There was the incredible juke move on Alex Okafor that was outright embarrassing. The Ravens are all the better for having selected Jackson and that hasn’t changed despite the loss on Sunday.

But here’s what is missing from the mainstream narrative of Lamar Jackson, at least at this point. The style is greater than the substance. The hype doesn’t match reality. The Chiefs defense actually did much better than the box score would have you believe and Jackson’s final line isn’t nearly as impressive as it looks—not that his 70.6 passer rating is all that snazzy.

For most of the game, Jackson and the Ravens looked outmatched by a superior team with a quarterback who has apparently already bored everyone in the NFL with yet another, yawn, 300 yard game. That’s fine. The Chiefs will take it and not think twice about how little or great the buzz around Mahomes is.

But if you happened to miss the game and find yourself hearing about Lamar Jackson any further this week, you should know that sheer luck saved him from largely laying an egg on the road against the first team with legitimate talent on their schedule. Believe what you want, but right now it’s mostly empty hype you’re hearing from those making the most noise.