Quarterback Lamar Jackson accepted the second regular-season Most Valuable Player Award of his career less than two full weeks after his Baltimore Ravens suffered a 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in last season’s AFC Championship Game.
Jackson took a valuable lesson from the defeat that he and the Ravens will look to avenge when they face the Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night.
“Coming off that AFC Championship Game and watching film on that, I believe, going into my seventh year, I need to be a more vocal leader to the guys,” Jackson recently told NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. “I’m getting older. I’m not the young guy anymore. There are more guys younger than me on the offensive side of the ball. I got to step it up. It’s my time to speak.”
Jackson turned just 27 years old weeks before the loss to Kansas City but received quite a bit of criticism this offseason due to his 2-4 career playoff record and because he has yet to guide Baltimore to a Super Bowl appearance. He’s currently averaging one MVP Award for every three seasons he plays, but he’s targeting bigger goals beginning with Thursday’s matchup.
“I see a lot of guys that see me being MVP,” Jackson told Breer. “I don’t talk about the MVP. A lot of guys look up to me. I’m seeing them look up to me, but at the same time, I still feel like a young guy. In this league, the quarterback is always the leader of the team, the leader of the offense, and I’ve just had to take a step forward, and step into doing what I’m supposed to do.”
Some have wondered if altering his playing style could help Jackson perform at an MVP level during must-win playoff games. He acknowledged while speaking with Breer that he could do a better job of letting teammates “work instead of going to run all the time.”
The Ravens adding running back Derrick Henry to the roster this offseason should help Jackson avoid the type of punishment that has left him hurting during previous postseason tournaments.
As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Ravens as three-point underdogs for the season opener against the Chiefs. Jackson and Co. could make quite a statement by spoiling Kansas City’s latest Super Bowl championship celebration in front of a prime-time audience.
