With last Sunday’s blowout victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, Lamar Jackson passed Hall of Famer Dan Marino with the most quarterback wins before the age of 25.
This puts Jackson’s win total at 35 and he doesn’t turn 25 until January 7, which means he has time to shatter this record.
Since there have already been a plethora of articles discussing Jackson’s new milestone, I’m going to take this in a different direction. Going all the way back to Week 9 in 2018, the Baltimore Ravens were 4-5 headed into a matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals.
It’s hard to believe now, but at that time John Harbaugh was on the shortlist of head coaches expected to be fired that season after a lackluster start. That is, until he decided to name Jackson QB1.
Lamar Jackson might have saved John Harbaugh’s Ravens career
Jackson led Baltimore to a 6-1 record after becoming the starter, with the only loss coming to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime. Jackson also led the Ravens to their first division title since their Super Bowl year back in 2012-2013.
Ever since Lamar Jackson was named the full-time starter, he has amassed a record of 35-8 in the regular season, been named unanimous MVP, made the playoffs every year, and won two division titles.
That’s enough for any head coach to get a contract extension, which Harbaugh received after the 2019 season and goes until the end of 2022.
Harbaugh is entering his 13th year with the Ravens and has only had one losing season back in 2015. He has coached in 19 playoff games since 2008 which ranks second among head coaches in that span.
I think most people would agree with me when I say that the best thing about Harbaugh has nothing to do with his strategies or gameplans, it’s the amount of chemistry he has with all of his players.
Watching him in Ravens Wired and locker room speeches always gives me reassurance that Baltimore has one of the best coaches in the league.
When it comes to quarterback/head coach relationships I think it’s safe to say Jackson and Harbaugh come second to no one. On and off the field, you can just see the genuine love they have for each other, which you can’t say the same for the majority of teams in the NFL.
One of the most memorable moments in Harbaugh’s coaching career didn’t even occur during a game, but instead a pregame scuffle. This was last season during their Week 11 matchup against the Tennessee Titans.
The entire Titans team decided to have their pregame speech on the Baltimore logo, and Malcolm Butler decided to spend some extra time there as he was chirping at Harbaugh.
Harbaugh’s response to this was to go out by himself and do some chirping of his own at Butler and the entire Titans team.
Video of #Ravens HC John Harbaugh and #Titans CB Malcolm Butler going back-and-forth pregame. pic.twitter.com/RwU4Hbxrde
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 22, 2020
Say what you want about this move of a coach doing some trash-talking of his own, but I can guarantee this move had the whole Ravens team and even Ravens Flock ready to run through a brick wall.
And we all know how the Titans ended up receiving their karma in the playoffs that year in their own stadium, reigniting a great rivalry between Baltimore and Tennessee.
I think most players would appreciate any type of move like this from their head coach. Showing them he’s got their back no matter what and is always ready to defend his team and city.
It’s hard to imagine John Harbaugh coaching anywhere other than Baltimore, especially for me, he’s been the Ravens coach for over half my life.
That being said, I hope to continue to see Coach “Harbs” firing up all of Baltimore for many years to come.