Overcriticized: Lamar Jackson
In today’s NFL, we are spoiled with
great quarterback play that gives us plenty of highlights and spectacular
plays. The media’s job is to cover these quarterbacks and how exactly they
perform over the course of the season. We see a lot of praise for these
quarterbacks in the media, but there’s one quarterback who rarely sees the
praise he rightfully deserves: Lamar Jackson (@new_era8). Despite winning two MVP awards
and his leadership of a consistently efficient Ravens offense, the quarterback
still receives unfair criticism of his play. Lamar Jackson breaks records and
turns in amazing performances, but when he plays poorly, the media focuses more
on his shortcomings.
Lamar Jackson is in elite company
with NFL players who have won two or
more MVP awards,
with players like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Johnny Unitas, and more. Lamar won
the award in both 2019 and 2023, despite having only played 7
seasons as of 2024. Lamar also consistently breaks long-time standing records
in the NFL, including his breaking of Cam
Newton’s quarterback rushing yards record of 5,631 yards in week four of the 2024 season
against the Washington Commanders, as Lamar now has 5,713 career rushing yards as of
week seven.
Despite these accomplishments, plus many more, Lamar Jackson still experiences
plenty of unfair criticism about him as a player and his style of play, which
is unconventional from the way quarterbacks have historically played the game
of football.
Lamar is often labeled as a running
quarterback, typically with a negative connotation. Some major personalities
within the world of football have suggested that he relies too heavily on his
rushing prowess. One major example is the media that covered analyst Bill
Polian’s opinion on Lamar Jackson during the 2018 NFL Draft process, with him suggesting Lamar should make a
switch to wide receiver.
He mentioned that Lamar’s “accuracy isn’t there”. This was not a fair criticism to
make about Lamar while excluding fellow draft mate Josh Allen, who was drafted
earlier than Jackson, which Allen had a worse completion
percentage in college with 56.3 against Lamar’s 59.1 completion percentage. During the draft process, there were even debates if Jackson should move to receiver:
Critics also argue against Lamar Jackson because of concerns with his durability. In 2023, when Lamar Jackson requested a trade as part of his negotiation with the Ravens, Falcons owner Arthur Blank was asked about if the Falcons would pursue Jackson, he raised concerns about his durability, saying “Looking at it objectively I’d say there’s some concern over how long can he play his style of game”. However, Lamar Jackson has not missed much time because of his running playstyle. He missed 5 games each season in 2021 and 2022 due to injury, but has been mostly available the rest of his career so far. Every quarterback at some point has stretches of games where they have to deal with an injury. Sitting in the pocket is one of the most vulnerable places on the football field.
Lamar Jackson has continuously been unfairly treated so media outlets can spin headlines that he is not as good as he appears to be on the football field. Any football fan who actually pays attention to Lamar and the accolades he achieves will know Lamar is one of the most underrated players in the NFL, and we can blame media coverage mainly for this. The next time you see a clickbait headline explaining why Lamar Jackson is “overrated,” or “not a real quarterback,” just keep in mind exactly what Jackson has achieved in the relatively short amount of time he has been playing. Do not give these pundits and personalities your attention – it’s better off going somewhere else that actually discusses something of real substance, instead of clickbait articles focused on garnering as much attention as they can. Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree with anything I mentioned here - I am happy to discuss!
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