There used to be a rumor that Lamar Jackson couldn’t pass. It was said that he couldn’t think his way through the gauntlet of NFL pass rushers and the daunting task of being the face of an NFL franchise…
They must have forgotten about the Heisman trophy. They must have forgotten about the 147.7 passer rating over his last two years at Louisville. They must have forgotten his sparkling MVP performance in 2019 where he threw for 36 touchdowns to 6 interceptions.
Well, to be fair, NFL execs thought Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Josh Rosen were more capable than Lamar during the 2018 draft evaluation process. He was even told, in a Willie Beamon-esque nightmare scenario, to consider a switch to WR by an NFL team that same year.
The issue is clear. No one except Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome looked Lamar Jackson in his eyes and saw the face of a franchise standing in front of them. Lamar, to put it lightly, doesn’t look like your typical MVP quarterback. He negotiates his own contracts without an agent all while alternating between braids, plaits, and cornrows on any given Sunday. Everything from his 3/4 throwing motion to his death-defying darts for first downs while dodging defenders like a slalom gold medalist makes him different than the traditional pocket passer blueprint to NFL quarterbacking. That said, the 2023 NFL season has ushered a new era. Quarterbacking, the golden child position in professional sports, is played at the highest levels by a “new breed of athlete and man” referenced by the beat reporter covering the Miami Sharks in Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday”, the future…
Finally, the stats match the famed “eye test” that coaches like to reference. It’s clear to see that Lamar is the “game changer” style quarterback, dubbed so correctly by Cam Newton in his recent viral evaluation of NFL signal callers. His naysayers have been able to lean on analytics to undermine his progression as one of the best in the NFL. However, this year the analytics points to his dynamic play as the new standard in the league. Compared to his well paid and highly touted peers in the NFL in 2023, even his analytics support the idea that this style of quarterbacking is changing the game…
In 2024, we have come to the day when a kid from South Florida who listens to Kodak Black can see himself as the face of an NFL franchise. The game is now about your ability to move the ball and no longer about your ability to be acceptably “Quarterbacky” enough to satisfy NFL execs and traditional old school fans…
