John Harbaugh: Lamar Jackson is as good as any passer there's ever been
Jackson has now proven that narrative to be ridiculous, becoming a two-time MVP and three-time first-team All-Pro QB.
His 2024 season was his best yet as a passer, completing 66.7 percent of his passes to set career highs in passing yards (4,172), touchdowns (41), and a career-low in interception rate (0.8 percent). He finished the year with the league lead in yards per attempt (8.8), touchdown rate (8.6 percent), and passer rating (119.6).
In an interview with Kevin Clark for ESPN's This is Football, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh spoke particularly highly of the QB who has started 94 games for the Ravens since the club selected him at No. 32 overall in 2018.
'There's so many things, and Lamar as a person is the thing I'd say I appreciate the most — the leader, the person, the genuine human being that he is. I mean, I love him as a person,' Harbaugh said. 'But I think from a football standpoint, just go to the most basic, simple thing — Lamar as a passer. He is a historically good passer. And that's really quite a statement because of the narrative that's been surrounding him ever since the beginning. Lamar Jackson can throw the football. He can throw it every kind of way, he can make every kind of throw any way you want. He's as good as any passer that there's ever been — and I think now the numbers are proving that.
'So that's the thing I'm kind of a little bit proud of, but [I'm] also a little bit like, 'OK, here we go, what have we learned from that?' You can take any big picture — from a society standpoint, from a football standpoint — what did we learn from that? And what kinds of questions do we ask ourselves? But, Lamar Jackson as a passer is historically great.'
How did he get to that point?
'I'd say the work that you do — if you're going to be good at anything, great at anything, you've got to work at it all the time,' Harbaugh said. 'I read a story just recently about a classical piano player, he's 95 years old, and he's working six to eight hours a day on playing the piano, and they ask him, 'Why do you still work six to eight hours on the piano?' And his comment was, 'I feel like I'm just starting to make some progress.'
'So, that daily, everyday working at your craft kind of thing, I think, is what Lamar does.'
Jackson is entering his third season with Todd Monken as his offensive coordinator. We'll see how the quarterback's evolution continues in 2025, particularly as the Ravens continue to look for their first Super Bowl appearance with Jackson as their starting QB.
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