It was two days before Christmas and Lamar Jackson’s name was percolating again in the NFL Most Valuable Player conversation.
The Ravens quarterback had just come off a five-touchdown performance against the New York Giants, had tossed three more touchdown passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers and was about to play his third game in 11 days in which he would tally three more scores against the Houston Texans in a blowout victory for Baltimore. Asked before that Houston game what another MVP Award would mean to him, Jackson said it would be “dope” but that he had bigger goals on his mind, specifically getting to and winning a Super Bowl.
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will instead try to win their third straight Super Bowl title when they play the Philadelphia Eagles after the Ravens’ season flamed out in a divisional round loss to the Buffalo Bills. Still, Jackson will likely bring home some hardware from New Orleans during Thursday night’s NFL Honors, which is when the league’s major awards will be handed out and the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2025 — with a pair of homegrown Ravens, outside linebacker Terrell Suggs and guard Marshal Yanda, among the finalists — will be announced.
After passing for a career-high 4,172 yards and a franchise-record 41 touchdowns with just four interceptions and leading the Ravens to a 12-5 record along with a second straight AFC North title, the All-Pro is the favorite to be named NFL MVP again.
He does have competition, though. Bill quarterback Josh Allen, Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Detroit Los quarterback Jared Goff are the other finalists.
Should Jackson win, it would be his third award since 2019 and second straight after becoming the first player in league history to pass for at least 4,000 yards and rush for at least 900 in the same season. He would also become just the seventh player to win it at least three times.
The others are all current or future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Jim Brown (1957, 1958, 1965), Johnny Unitas (1959, 1964, 1967), Brett Favre (1995, 1996, 1997), Peyton Manning (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2013), Tom Brady (2007, 2010, 2017) and Aaron Rodgers (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021).
All, of course, have something Jackson does not: an NFL championship.
Still, that doesn’t diminish what was a sterling and often spectacular individual regular season for which the award is based.
Simply put, Jackson was perhaps the game’s most dynamic and electric player. As he went, so did Baltimore.
Jackson had the second-most touchdown passes and sixth-most passing yards in the league and led all quarterbacks in rushing yards. He also had the league’s highest touchdown rate (8.6%), became the first player to lead in yards per pass attempt (8.8) and yards per rush (6.6), and his passer rating of 119.6 led the league while ranking fourth all-time. He accounted for at least three touchdowns in nine games and threw at least four touchdown passes in three.
He also rarely turned the ball over, especially down the stretch, with just one interception and one lost fumble over the Ravens’ final six games as they rallied from two games back of the division lead with four to play.
Perhaps that’s why Ravens coach John Harbaugh was so bullish on Jackson before the season even started.
“The vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League,” he said in July. “That’s the vision. It’s going to happen by Lamar, his work ethic and his brilliant talent, by all of us pouring into that effort together as a team, and by the grace of God and God’s goodwill. That’s how it’s going to happen. And I believe it like we’ve already seen it.”
After Jackson’s impressive season, it’s no wonder then that he is also among the finalists for NFL Offensive Player of the Year, along with teammate and running back Derrick Henry.
Together, they formed perhaps the league’s most dangerous backfield, with the Ravens becoming the first team in league history to pass for at least 4,000 yards and run for at least 3,000 in the same season.
Baltimore’s 7,224 total yards ranked third in NFL history, and its 426.5 yards per game and 6.8 yards per play led the league.
Henry was a major factor. His 16 rushing touchdowns tied for the most in the NFL, his 17 total scores were the second-most in the league behind only the Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs, and his 1,921 rushing yards were the second-most in the NFL behind only Barkley, who is also up for Offensive Player of the Year along with Burrow and Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
Should Henry, 31, win, it would be his second time doing so. He was Offensive Player of the Year in 2020 when he became just the eighth player to top 2,000 yards rushing in a season, finishing with 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns to lead the NFL.
This year, though, Barkley added his name to the 2,000-yard club, finishing with a league-best 2,005 on an NFL-high 345 carries. His 125.3 rushing yards per game also led the league to go along with 15 total touchdowns (13 rushing, 2 receiving).
Former Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs was NFL Defensive Player of the Year and ranks eighth on the all-time sack list. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)
Jackson and Henry are the Ravens’ present. Suggs and Yanda, both Hall of Fame finalists in their first year of eligibility, contributed a combined 29 years of steady excellence to the franchise’s past. Both were key members of the Ravens’ 2012 Super Bowl team, and though they were different personalities — Suggs often the most jocular figure on the practice field, Yanda more apt to hide his sly sense of humor beneath a stoic exterior — they ended up as locker room neighbors and mutual admirers.
Suggs’ Hall of Fame case is not difficult to make. He was the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and ranks eighth on the all-time sack list. The seven players ahead of him and the three behind him have busts in Canton. And Suggs wasn’t some one-dimensional burner off the edge. He became a tough run defender and wily deterrent to all screen passes.
It’s always harder for offensive linemen, especially those who play on the interior. No guard has made the Hall of Fame on his first try since Larry Allen in 2013. But Yanda made the Pro Bowl in eight of his last nine seasons (he played just two games the year he missed) and, in the ultimate sign of respect, was a unanimous choice on the NFL’s All-Decade team for 2010 to 2019. Yanda was so good and so versatile that when he hurt his lead blocking shoulder in 2016, he simply switched from right guard to left guard without missing a beat.
His last year was Jackson’s first MVP season in 2019. “Watching him on film and how he approached the game, the type of guy he is and leadership he showed, I believe nobody else deserves it more than him,” the quarterback said of his former protector’s Hall of Fame candidacy.
Neither Suggs nor Yanda is a no-brainer, first-ballot pick like the three previous homegrown Ravens — Jonathan Ogden, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed — to make it. Voters saw unusual parity in this year’s finalists, with linebacker Luke Kuechly, kicker Adam Vinatieri and quarterback Eli Manning also among the first-time candidates, along with returning contenders such as tight end Antonio Gates, defensive end Jared Allen and wide receiver Torry Holt. That might make it difficult for the usual five modern-era candidates to obtain the required 80% of votes.
Longtime Baltimore broadcaster Scott Garceau, who has been the city’s representative in the 49-member Hall of Fame voting body for more than 20 years, expects both Suggs and Yanda to make it eventually.
“But this is as wide-open a class as I’ve ever seen,” Garceau cautioned. “There are a whole bunch of good guys. I don’t think there’s anywhere you say, ‘That guy’s a lock.’”
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Former Ravens guard Marshal Yanda is a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)