John Harbaugh’s team is coming off another wild win over their AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals. On Thursday night in Baltimore, the Ravens rallied from a 21-7 third-quarter deficit and held on for a 35-34 victory. The one-point escape raised the team’s record to 7-3 and was the club’s seventh victory in their last eight games following a 0-2 start.
Baltimore’s offense has been the story this season, and Harbaugh’s squad has needed everything it can get from the starting signal-caller, who has a slew of weapons at his disposal.
Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson is having another MVP-like season
Standout NFL writer Albert Breer recently asked 20 league executives, including scouting directors, in regards to their choices for numerous midseason awards—including the NFL MVP. One dozen came up with the same answer, and it was far from shocking (via Breer).
“This would be (Lamar) Jackson’s second consecutive MVP, and third overall (he won in 2019 and ’23), and that’s well deserved. It’s really hard to quantify what his value has become to the Ravens…He’s worked his tail off, and the result is not just an uptick in (his passing) numbers, but also better chemistry with young weapons such as Zay Flowers and Isaiah Likely. And he’s still effective enough as a runner to allow the Ravens to run an offense that differs more from the average NFL scheme than any other. At 538 yards and 5.9 yards per carry, a third 1,000-yard season could be in the offing. Simply put, there are few teams constructed more around a single player. He, in turn, has made that setup sing—and proved to be more than worth the trouble to install.”
As for those aforementioned aerial exploits, impressive would be selling Jackson short. In 10 outings, he’s connected on 69.1 percent of his throws for 2,669 yards, 24 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. In fact, he’s committed only six turnovers this season. A total of 10 different players have caught at least one TD pass from Jackson in 2024.
In 2023, Jackson captured his second MVP award. In 16 games, he threw for 3,678 yards and 24 scores (7 interceptions) and ran for 821 yards and five TDs. Talk about improved numbers?
In case you’re wondering, the only other players to receive more than one vote from the panel were Buffalo’s Josh Allen (3) and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes (2). There’s a long way to go, but Jackson could become the first player since Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (2020 and ’21) to capture league MVP honors in back-to-back seasons.