Check Out This Horrendous Lamar Jackson Take From an Anonymous NFL Defensive Coordinator
By Liam McKeone
Lamar Jackson is a truly unique player at the quarterback position, which means people's brains tend to break when speaking about him. In other words, Lamar Jackson discourse is far more convoluted than any other discourse around an individual player in the NFL. Such is the life of a "unicorn" player, and there is no better example than a quote that emerged from the anonymous NFL coaching ranks today via The Athletic.
Mike Sando published a QB Tiers list on Monday, with the results determined by anonymous votes by NFL personnel. The order of the players in question should always be taken with a grain of salt because they are anonymous. However, a defensive coordinator apparently decided it was time to take full advantage of the nameless factor and pulled out an insane take about Jackson. Per The Athletic:
“If he has to pass to win the game, they ain’t winning the game,” another defensive coordinator said. “He’s so unique as an athlete and he’s really a good football player, but I don’t (care) if he wins the league MVP 12 times, I don’t think he’ll ever be a 1 as a quarterback. He’ll be a 1 as a football player, but not as a quarterback. So many games come down to two-minute, and that is why they have a hard time advancing even when they are good on defense. Playoffs are tight. You have to be able to throw the ball, and he is just so inconsistent throwing the ball. It is hit or miss.”
I mean ... what? For literally any other quarterback, winning an MVP means they're upper-echelon for basically the rest of their career. Elite. Whatever word you want to use. But apparently in the case of Jackson such accolades don't matter.
This quote made its way through the NFL community and Rodger Sherman of The Ringer provided some nifty stats to show that it's not only a convoluted perspective, it's actually quite wrong.
The discourse. It's out of control!