News of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s top-10 rankings snub sent ripples across the football community, but Jackson has an entire Twitter army ready to defend him.
Is there any quarterback in the modern era more steeped in controversy than Lamar Jackson?
Last year, one NFL pundit claimed the league was on the verge of “figuring out” Jackson despite the star Ravens quarterback scoring highly in several statistical categories since 2018.
Now, a recent ESPN report had Jackson landing among the honorable mentions outside the top-10 ranking of the league’s elite quarterbacks. While the likes of Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen belong in a class of their own, more controversial picks such as Dak Prescott and Deshaun Watson ranked ahead of Jackson.
Jackson’s bogus snub didn’t go unnoticed, and many prominent NFL analysts and talking heads took to Twitter to air their grievances:
Lamar Jackson...
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 11, 2022
had his team #1 seed in AFC in early DEC...
despite being the #1 most injured team in history
ranked #1 in the NFL throwing outside the numbers...
& was top-10 in the NFL in rush yds when healthy
and after injury BAL went 0-5
…but he's not a top-10 QB
😂 pic.twitter.com/vKjonv8z2m
Lamar Jackson in his first 4 NFL Seasons
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) July 12, 2022
He’s started 49 games-(3 seasons—He didn’t start the first 10 games of his career and missed the last 6 last season)
So that’s 12 wins a season, 4300 yds per and 35 TDs per season. That’s elite. That’s win because of.
THATS TOP 10
Mina Kimes on Lamar Jackson: “The notion that he’s not played like a top 10 quarterback in the NFL is just ridiculous”
— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) July 12, 2022
pic.twitter.com/60XU5JuQf6
People might say I’m caping for @Lj_era8, but to me it’s common sense. Any other qb with his impact, his success, his overall statistics would be worshipped. Yet, we are discussing why he isn’t in the top 10 QBs. The 3 other former MVPs are in the top 4. Guess I’m dumb though!
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) July 12, 2022
The NFL remains divided on whether Ravens’ Lamar Jackson is an elite top-10 quarterback
Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey also took to Jackson’s defense in a response to Ryan Clark’s tweet and declared that Jackson doesn’t get enough respect for his achievements.
On paper, the case against Jackson’s top-10 ranking feels thin: for those claiming that Jackson is “just” a running back, his quarterback record says otherwise.
Jackson joins Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Kurt Warner as the only quarterbacks in NFL history with 30-plus wins and a 98-plus passer rating in their first four seasons.
Jackson may not have many postseason wins to his name, but neither do Justin Herbert or Dak Prescott; even Super Bowl LVI champion Matthew Stafford had lost each of the three postseason games he played in prior to 2021.
At only 24 years old, Jackson broke several records at the beginning of his 2021 campaign before getting injured. While some believe his ankle injury marks the start of his inevitable decline, as Jackson poses as more of a run-heavy quarterback and thus is more prone to injury, there isn’t much evidence to suggest Jackson’s running style can’t be sustained for the long-term.
This is the first major injury Jackson has suffered in the NFL, and his previous clean bill of health should trump any concerns about his future.
It’s one thing to label Lamar Jackson as a middling passer with an unreliable pocket presence, but to rank him below someone who hasn’t touched a football since 2020? Light your torches and grab your pitchforks, Twitter. This is war.