Lamar Jackson and the Ravens donned their black alternate uniforms for what couldn’t have been a more colorful performance on Sunday Night Football against an unbeaten New England Patriots teams. Before anyone, included Bill Belichick could understand what was happening on the field, Baltimore roared to a 17-0 lead in a quarter and fifty more seconds, and, despite the Patriots reducing the deficit to four points by halftime, the Ravens held on to defeat New England 37-10. It was a brilliant performance that dismantled the best defense in the league so far, with the Ravens scoring 37 points against a team that entered the game allowing less than 8 points on average.
Lamar Jackson, the sophomore quarterback, had another marquee game, with 163 yards on 23 passing attempts (74% completion) and a touchdown, adding 61 yards and another 2 scores on the ground. It truly has been a remarkable run for the former Louisville quarterback, dominating the Patriots in what was his twelfth win in just fifteenth NFL starts.
With the win, Baltimore should have silenced any doubts (if there were any) that the Ravens are indeed the class of the NFC North, despite a suddenly hot Steelers team. Credit to John Harbaugh, the General Manager (at the time) Ozzie Newsome and Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman, who gambled on Jackson, and are now ripping the rewards. There were many doubts surrounding Lamar Jackson coming out of college, with many viewing him as a mediocre passer, whose only qualities started and ended in the running game, leading to is infamous decision to skip the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine to focus on passing drills.
Well, there’s no doubt that Jackson is an elite talent on the ground, but just how special is he really, running the football?
Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III are regarded as some of the best dual-threat quarterback of the last decade and a half, and some of the best ever. Vick averaged almost 7 yards per carry in his first 15 career starts, Cam Newton rushed for 14 touchdowns, almost one a game, in the same spawn, and RGIII average more than 50 yards per game before injury derailed his career. But Lamar Jackson is perhaps better than all of those in the running game. Let’s take a look at some numbers:
First 15 Career Starts – Rushing Stats
- Michael Vick – 107 Rushes, 748 Yards (6.99Y/A), 8 Touchdowns, 50Y/G;
- Cam Newton – 120 Rushes, 675 Yards (5.63Y/A), 14 Touchdowns, 45Y/G;
- Colin Kaepernick – 91 Rushes, 512 Yards (5.63Y/A), 5 Touchdowns; 34Y/G;
- RGIII – 114 Rushes, 752 Yards (6.60Y/A), 6 Touchdowns; 50Y/G;
As for Lamar Jackson? In his first 15 starts he has 218 Rushing Attempts (almost double those of Cam Newton), 1193 Rushing Yards (that’s 441 more yards than RGIII, and more than Kaepernick and Vick combined), 5.47 yards per rush, 9 Rushing Touchdowns (second most on the list) and 79,5 rushing yards per game (that would be good enough for top 10 in the league in any year since 2011). I think it’s safe to say that, both in volume and production, those are more running back numbers than those of a dual-threat quarterback.
In fact, there’s only twenty one players in NFL History with more rushing yards and more rushing touchdowns in their first fifteen games than Jackson. All of them are Running Backs, seven are Hall of Famers, some of those are current stars (Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliot, Saquon Barkley) and of those twenty one, only Adrian Peterson had more yards per rush.
If those numbers sustain the idea that yes, Lamar Jackson is elite at running the ball, the play on the field shows that he is also a quarterback on the rise, and we may even call him one of the elite quarterbacks in the league, even though it is relatively early in his career. Lets look at some more numbers. Below is a list of three quarterbacks and their combined stats in their first fifteen career starts:
First 15 Career Starts – Passing Stats
- Jackson – 245/396 (62% completion), 7.39 yards/attempt, 2.13 TD/INT;
- QB A – 320/505 (63% completion), 7.38 yards/attempt, 1.92 TD/INT;
- QB B – 290/446 (65% completion), 6.93 yards/attempt, 1.75 TD/INT;
Those are pretty good stats right? A respectable completion percentage, the best yardage per pass (by the slimmest of margins in comparison with QB A) and a solid lead in the touchdown to interception ratio. Well, those stats may look even better if I tell you that the stat-line for QB A is that of Aaron Rodgers, and QB B is none other than Tom Brady’s.
Even if we look at more traditional stats, like total passing yards, passing touchdowns (and those two are significantly hampered by Jackson’s propensity to scramble and run with the ball) or interceptions, in the first fifteen career stats, among active quarterbacks, only Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford, DeShaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers have more passing touchdowns than Lamar Jackson; those four plus Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady and Jameis Winston have more passing yards; and Lamar Jackson is also on the top 5 for less turnovers (interception and lost fumbles), behind Wilson, Rodgers, Watson and Brady.
So, is Lamar Jackson the best dual-threat quarterback ever? Well, if the first fifteen starts of his career are any indication, yes, at least volume-wise. Is he just a wannabe running back? Absolutely not.
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