OWINGS MILLS — Lamar Jackson has the respect of two of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time.
Both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning ranked him No. 2 in their NFL Top 100 over the weekend at Fanatics Fest, which held an event in New York as the official sports partner of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes was ranked No. 1 on the list.
“That’s crazy,” Jackson said. “That’s dope, especially coming from those guys. Those [are] guys who [are] on top of the Mount Rushmore [of quarterbacks] right now, for me at least. That’s great – that’s great to hear that from the GOATs.”
Jackson was named NFL MVP last season and in 2019 when he was one vote shy of being a unanimous choice. He is the 11th player in NFL history to win the award multiple times, joining Manning, Brady, Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Jim Brown, Brett Favre, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Steve Young and Kurt Warner.
Last season, Jackson threw for 3,678 yards and 24 touchdowns with career highs in completion percentage (67.2) and yards per completion (8) over 16 regular-season games. He also led the Ravens with 821 yards rushing, averaging 5.5 yards per carry and five scores.
His seven 50-yard rushing games gave Jackson 54 in his career, tying Michael Vick’s all-time mark for quarterbacks. He also became the first quarterback to run for 700 or more yards in five consecutive seasons, He was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for Weeks 7 and 17.
Vick holds the record for rushing yards by a quarterback with 6,109 ahead of Newton (5,631), Russell Wilson (5,307), and Jackson (5,258). At age 27, Jackson has plenty of time to pass Vick.
Jackson has also gone 58-19 as the starter. Now, he is looking to win a Super Bowl like Brady and Manning.
“Lamar Jackson does things that just don’t seem possible with the football in his hands. He makes throws, he runs and he’s smart about — he protects himself, too,” Manning said at the event. “Look, I never could run, so I never had that problem. The thing we were talking about earlier, quarterbacks that like to run, you’ve still got to find a way to get out of bounds or get down and be there on the next play and not get hurt. Defenses — if the quarterback gets hurt, they’re probably going to win that game. So, I love the way Lamar carries himself. I think he’ll have a great year this year.”
