{"id":294,"date":"2025-04-03T18:28:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T18:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/?p=294"},"modified":"2025-04-03T18:28:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T18:28:05","slug":"not-your-prototype-the-lamar-jackson-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/2025\/04\/03\/not-your-prototype-the-lamar-jackson-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Your Prototype: The Lamar Jackson Era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It started with a smirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamar Jackson sat quietly next to his mom on draft night, wearing a look that was somewhere between calm and slightly annoyed. Quarterback after quarterback got picked before him\u2014even ones who hadn\u2019t come close to matching his college numbers or impact. Despite winning the Heisman Trophy and lighting it up at Louisville, Jackson slipped to the final pick of the first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Ravens finally took him at 32nd overall, he didn\u2019t lash out. He didn\u2019t rant. He pulled the Baltimore cap down low and looked into the camera with a confident message:
\u201cThey gonna get a Super Bowl out of me. Believe that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But instead of celebrating that moment, a bunch of analysts and fans immediately questioned whether he should even be a quarterback. Some said he\u2019d be better off switching to wide receiver. Others laughed him off as just a runner. That was the beginning of what would become a constant theme in Lamar\u2019s career\u2014being doubted and misunderstood no matter how much he accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the second he got to the league, people have questioned Lamar Jackson. His passing was called inconsistent. His style was labeled as \u201cunsustainable.\u201d Even though he dominated college football and ran one of the most complicated offenses at Louisville, he wasn\u2019t given the benefit of the doubt. If we\u2019re being honest, that\u2019s something a lot of Black quarterbacks have dealt with in the NFL\u2014praised for their athleticism but rarely respected for their intelligence or leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then came 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamar put the entire league on notice. He led the NFL in touchdown passes. He broke the single-season rushing record for a quarterback. The Ravens finished 14\u20132, and he won MVP unanimously\u2014something only Tom Brady had done before him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn\u2019t stop there. In 2023, he claimed his second MVP award, becoming just the 11th player in NFL history to win multiple MVPs. That season, he led the Ravens to another AFC title run and proved, once again, that his impact goes beyond stats\u2014he\u2019s a winning quarterback who elevates everyone around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d think that would\u2019ve shut people up. It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with two MVPs under his belt, critics kept calling him \u201cRB1\u201d and saying defenses would figure him out. When Baltimore got knocked out of the playoffs in 2019, the noise got even louder. It didn\u2019t matter that his playoff numbers weren\u2019t terrible or that he was still learning as a young QB. The goalposts kept moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something incredibly frustrating about being great and still having to prove yourself constantly. But Lamar\u2019s story isn\u2019t just about football\u2014it\u2019s about the way we view quarterbacks and the outdated expectations we place on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s this weird double standard. When white QBs run, it\u2019s \u201csmart mobility.\u201d When Lamar runs, it\u2019s seen as a flaw. Even now, in a league full of dual-threat quarterbacks, he\u2019s still treated like an outlier instead of a trendsetter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What people miss is how much Lamar has evolved<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Todd Monken took over as offensive coordinator in 2023, Lamar has looked more comfortable and balanced than ever. His accuracy has improved, he\u2019s staying calm under pressure, and he\u2019s making smart throws. He still uses his legs\u2014because why wouldn\u2019t he?\u2014but he\u2019s clearly shown he doesn\u2019t rely on them to win games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in 2024, he delivered the best season of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamar threw for a career-high 4,172 passing yards and 41 touchdowns with just 4 interceptions, finishing the year with a passer rating of 119.6. On the ground, he added 915 rushing yards and 4 rushing touchdowns. In the regular-season finale against Cleveland, he became the first player in NFL history to record over 4,000 passing yards and 800 rushing yards in a single season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ravens ended the regular season with one of the best records in the league and made it to the AFC Divisional Round, where they lost a tight 27\u201325 game to the Bills. Despite the early exit, Jackson finished second in MVP voting, barely edged out by Josh Allen. But the performance spoke for itself\u2014his dual-threat dominance hit historic levels, again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s not forget the contract situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamar represented himself. No agent. No media circus. He negotiated directly with the Ravens and stood his ground, even when people in the media called him unreasonable. In the end, he signed a five-year, $260 million deal\u2014the highest-paying contract in the NFL at the time. That alone should\u2019ve earned him more respect, but instead, it turned into another moment where people questioned his decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through it all, Lamar has stayed quiet and focused. He doesn\u2019t need headlines or drama. He just wants to win. His teammates love him. He\u2019s known for being humble and always putting the team first. You don\u2019t see him in the news for the wrong reasons. He\u2019s a leader in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 2023 post-game interview, Jackson addressed the ongoing criticism:
\u201cI play quarterback. At the end of the day, I\u2019m trying to win games. However I need to do that, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do. I\u2019m not worried about the labels.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s honestly wild that some fans and commentators are still unsure about him. He\u2019s won more games than most of the QBs from his draft class. He\u2019s made the Ravens legit contenders. And when you actually watch the games\u2014not just the clips on Twitter<\/em>\u2014you see how much control he has over the offense. He\u2019s making reads, shifting protections, and doing everything a quarterback is supposed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole \u201crunning back\u201d joke? It was never funny, and it\u2019s never been accurate. It\u2019s lazy, and at this point, it\u2019s just flat-out disrespectful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the impact of this narrative isn\u2019t just media noise\u2014it\u2019s rooted in long-standing racial dynamics in the NFL. A 2022 study by The Undefeated<\/em> (now Andscape) reported that Black quarterbacks are still less likely to be described using terms like \u201csmart\u201d or \u201cleader\u201d in scouting reports, while white quarterbacks are more often praised for mental traits. Lamar\u2019s experience fits right into that trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Lamar Jackson is doing matters. He\u2019s changing the way people think about the position, whether they like it or not. And even if some folks are slow to admit it, kids watching him play know exactly who and what he is. They see a quarterback who looks like them, plays his own way, and leads with confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamar doesn\u2019t fit the old mold\u2014and that\u2019s a good thing. He\u2019s breaking it. He\u2019s rewriting it. And in doing so, he\u2019s opening the door for a whole new generation of quarterbacks who don\u2019t have to check every outdated box to be considered elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was never just a running back.
He\u2019s always been a quarterback\u2014some people are just finally catching up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started with a smirk. Lamar Jackson sat quietly next to his mom on draft night, wearing a look that was somewhere between calm and slightly annoyed. Quarterback after quarterback got picked before him\u2014even ones who hadn\u2019t come close to matching his college numbers or impact. Despite winning the Heisman Trophy and lighting it up … Continue reading Not Your Prototype: The Lamar Jackson Era<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/sarahwaterssportjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}