Lamar Jackson is coming into the 2024-25 season off a massive season, he won his second MVP Award, he led the Ravens to an AFC North Championship, the top seed in the AFC, but eventually fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship.
After Jackson’s monster season means his stock has risen even further around the NFL, from fans to scouts and personnel of NFL teams all around the league.
Before his second MVP season, he signed a massive contract with the Baltimore Ravens, It was a five-year deal that is worth $260 million. This puts his annual salary at $52 million per year, at the time was the most guaranteed money in NFL history at $185 million.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler recently put out an article on “Execs, coaches, scouts rank NFL’s top 10 QBs for 2024”.
Lamar Jackson was ranked #4, behind Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Josh Allen.
“I don’t think he wants to be the runner he used to be,” a veteran NFL personnel evaluator said. “He wants to be a pure pocket passer because that’s how you prolong your career and win late in the season.”
How he came in, with everything stuck to that stigma as a runner, that sticks with you as a pro until you prove them wrong,” an NFC executive said. “That’s not fair but that’s the way it’s been with him. There wasn’t any doubt who the best player in the league was last year. So, it’s long been time to put that to rest”.
Number four is a considerably better ranking than his number seven ranking entering the 2023-24 season, which makes sense considering how strong of a season Jackson had, winning his second MVP, and putting up the best passing stats of his career so far.
Some people had him as high as No. 2, but no one placed him outside the top five.
The lack of postseason success for Jackson so far has to be a reason why he’s not placed higher, with only two postseason wins so far, one coming last season against the Houston Texans in the AFC Divisional Round, and a bad performance in the AFC Championship game vs Mahomes and Chiefs in a very winnable game.
If Lamar Jackson has another outstanding season, as expected, and has even more postseason success or even a Super Bowl win, Lamar Jackson could climb to two or even one potentially after this upcoming season.
