OWINGS MILLS, Md. — It was midway through Baltimore Ravens training camp when quarterback Lamar Jackson rolled to his right and saw wide receiver Keith Kirkwood open along the sideline for a surefire big play. But Jackson’s pass sailed wildly over Kirkwood.
Without hesitation, Jackson, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player, dropped face-first to the ground and did 10 pushups. Coaches and teammates say this is a glimpse of how Jackson is constantly chasing perfection and how this underscores his bold statement on the first day of training camp.
When asked if there was another level to his game, Jackson replied, “Yes. I’m only 28. I’m really just getting started.”
As the Ravens prepare to open the season Sunday night at the Buffalo Bills (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC), Jackson is at a point in his career where he’s entering his prime while dealing with the same questions. He believes there is more to his game, but he’s facing increasing pressure to follow a spectacular regular season with an equally remarkable postseason.
“We’ve had two back-to-back years of some really, really tough losses that ended the season in a way that we don’t want to end the season,” Ravens quarterbacks coach Tee Martin said. “If you know Lamar, like I know him competitively, he’s probably thought about that every day [and] every minute during the offseason. So, that comes with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose.”
Jackson’s latest playoff disappointment — a 27-25 divisional round loss in Buffalo — came after he produced one of the best seasons by a quarterback in NFL history. He became the first player to throw more than 40 touchdown passes and fewer than five interceptions in the same season.
Jackson proved again that he’s the league’s most explosive playmaker in the league, leading the NFL in yards per pass attempt (8.8) and yards per carry (6.6).
After watching Jackson deliver this impressive season, Ravens tight end Mark Andrews said jokingly that it might be 10 years until everyone sees Jackson at his peak.
“Every year, he finds a new way to get better and better,” Andrews said. “It’s almost like the game has just continually slowed down for him. And he’s already such a fast, dynamic player and his playmaking, the way he reads the game, he’s just getting more and more comfortable. I love the way that he’s just going about his business and continues to move that bar higher and higher, which is already incredible.”
When looking at the careers of the previous three multiple NFL MVP winners who are either retired or nearing the end of their careers, Jackson could be — as he said — just getting started.
All six of the seasons Peyton Manning totaled a passer rating over 100 came when he was 28 or older. All eight of Tom Brady’s seasons with over 4,500 passing yards came when he was 30 or older. Aaron Rodgers‘ seven highest touchdown pass seasons came when he was 28 or older.
Jackson could be approaching that same cusp after reaching new heights as a passer last season. He produced a career-best 4,172 passing yards, which were 494 more than any of his previous six seasons. He also set personal marks for most touchdown passes (41) and fewest interceptions (four) in a season.
“I think Lamar kind of makes his own trajectory,” left tackle Ronnie Stanley said. “He’s going to do things week-in and week-out that we haven’t seen before, so it’s always surprising the new things he can do and accomplish. After playing with him for eight years, I’m not surprised by him always pushing the limits and breaking new boundaries.”
WHEN ANALYZING HOW Jackson can further ratchet up his game, the knee-jerk reaction is to focus on his passing. For those close to Jackson, it’s more about what is happening after he throws the ball.
On the practice field, Jackson talks to his wide receivers about what went right and wrong on the previous plays. He has even pulled wide receivers coach Greg Lewis and offensive line coach George Warhop to talk off to the side.
“He’s more vocal than he ever has been about what he wants from us, even to the staff and the offensive linemen,” wide receiver Rashod Bateman said. “He’s definitely pushing the agenda of just staying hungry and being competitive.”
Jackson has never been outspoken. He has never been the type of player to deliver a great motivational speech. His style has always been leading by example.
But coaches have pushed him to talk to teammates more one-on-one.
“Mentally, he’s in a different place,” Martin said. “It’s his third year in the system. He’s playing with a lot of the same players. Having the [good] communication of the guys who he has to communicate with the most, Bateman, Zay [Flowers], all the guys, Mark. It’s time to take not only himself to the next level, but the whole unit.”
During training camp, Jackson hasn’t hidden his frustration when the offense struggles. After repeated false starts by the offensive line, Jackson spiked the ball in anger. Then, after a fumbled exchange with a running back, Jackson punted the ball high in the air.
Jackson’s next step has been relaying to his teammates what he expects from them. He’s in, perhaps, the best comfort zone of his career regarding his supporting cast. Jackson lost one starter from the NFL’s No. 1 offense of 2024, and he’s entering his third season in offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s system.
Monken believes Jackson has improved his command at the line of scrimmage, consistently getting the players on the same page.
“Once he takes over that control, that’s a good thing for the Ravens,” Monken said. “The more he does that, the more he embraces that — which he does a lot of it — that’s really good because the elite players like him want that. They want the ability to do that and then you live with the end result. And usually with him, it’s pretty special.”
DURING A TWO-MINUTE drill this summer, Jackson dropped back to pass and didn’t see anyone open. He tucked the ball under his arm and took off.
While Ravens defenders can’t tackle quarterbacks in training camp, no one was even close to Jackson, who punctuated his 75-yard touchdown run with a front flip into the end zone.
“I feel [how] I did my rookie year, speed-wise [and] mobility-wise,” Jackson said.
The long-standing narrative with Jackson is that he will eventually have to change his style of play when he loses his speed. But, after 1,014 career rushing attempts, he doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
In the Ravens’ 31-2 win at Houston on Christmas Day last season, Jackson reached a career-best top speed of 21.25 miles per hour on a 48-yard touchdown run. He later joked that he was jogging.
Qadry Ismail, the No. 1 wide receiver for the Ravens’ 2000 Super Bowl team who now specializes in sports performance training, said Jackson can maintain that speed as long as he doesn’t bulk up like he did in 2022 and continues to avoid the big hits.
“I can see it where another eight, nine years, and you’d be like, ‘Wow, how does he do that?'” Ismail said. “Well, I think it’s because of how he can go about his offseason training.”
Jackson has transitioned from a run-first quarterback to a pass-first one over the years. He went from averaging over 10 rushing attempts per game in each of his first four seasons to totaling the 12th-most passing attempts in the NFL (931) over the past two seasons.
But Jackson remains one of the most dangerous mobile quarterbacks in the league. After surpassing Michael Vick last season for most all-time rushing yards by a quarterback, Jackson finished with 915 yards on the ground in 2024.
Can he go against the grain again? The most rushing yards by a quarterback 28 or older is 754 by Cam Newton in 2017.
“All I can tell you is he is flying,” Martin said. “He’s running really well. [With] his escapability in the pocket, they can’t tackle him, but they’re still having a hard time touching him, too. But I like where he is at. To go the long haul, we know is all the way to February [with] the mental condition, the physical conditioning that it takes to get to the Super Bowl. I think that that’s what’s on his mind, and he’s looking really good.”
ON THE FIRST day of training camp, Jackson had a private meeting with the team where, as Martin recalled, he “spoke from the heart.”
Jackson emphasized that it’s time to put in the work if the Ravens want to reach their ultimate goal, leading running back Derrick Henry to say, “He’s just tired of coming up short.”
Jackson isn’t the only NFL MVP to feel this angst at the start of a career. Rodgers didn’t win his first Super Bowl until his sixth season. Manning didn’t hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy until his ninth.
And Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who faces Jackson on Sunday night, has not reached a Super Bowl in seven seasons — exactly like Jackson.
Since becoming the Ravens’ starting quarterback midway through the 2018 season, Jackson has been dazzling in the regular season and mistake-prone in the playoffs.
“If Lamar’s having a great season, it’s like, we’ve seen that before,” said Vinny Cerrato, a former NFL general manager who is an analyst for a Baltimore radio station. “The thing with Lamar is in the playoffs thus far, he has not played a full four quarters yet.”
Jackson has accomplished nearly everything on a quarterback checklist from September to December. In addition to the MVP awards, Jackson has been named to four Pro Bowls and has earned first-team All-Pro honors three times. He’s led Baltimore to four AFC North titles and captured the No. 1 seed twice.
The biggest area of improvement for Jackson lies in the postseason. Of the 10 quarterbacks who’ve won multiple NFL MVP awards, Jackson is the only one with a losing record in the postseason (3-5) and the only one without a Super Bowl title.
Jackson told reporters at the start of training camp that he doesn’t want to think too far ahead to the Super Bowl “because every time we had those discussions, we get to the playoffs, but we don’t punch in. We don’t finish.”
Jackson can’t shoulder all the blame because his supporting cast has dropped the ball in critical situations. Flowers fumbled near the goal line in the fourth quarter of the 2023 AFC Championship Game, and Andrews dropped a potential game-tying 2-point conversion in the final minutes of last season’s AFC divisional playoff game.
Still, all eyes are on Jackson, whose 11 turnovers in eight playoff games are the NFL’s most since he entered the league in 2018. This is after Jackson has protected the ball quite well in the regular season with 57 turnovers in 103 games.
“Things are meant to happen,” Jackson said. “It’s not my time because if it was my time, we would’ve had seven Super Bowls in a row already.”
All the buzz around Baltimore this summer is how this year’s team might be the most complete during Jackson’s time as the starter. The Ravens are co-Super Bowl favorites with the Eagles, according to ESPN BET.
“I think the conversation for Lamar is going to change when, not if — but when — he wins his championship,” Ismail said. “Yeah, you got to go through it and you got to get to the dance. That’s just the bottom line.”
