It’s become popular to criticize Lamar Jackson anonymously. Throughout the years, several coaches and executives have shared their thoughts on the Ravens quarterback with reporters under the assurance that their names wouldn’t be attached to the quote.
The Athletic’s Mike Sando, who’s been covering the NFL for three decades, said the scrutiny Jackson continuously faces is on a different level than most.
“I think Lamar is largely overanalyzed because he is so different,” Sando said on Glenn Clark Radio July 29. “He breaks the mold. He breaks the template.”
Anonymous criticism surfaced again recently, when The Athletic published Sando’s annual quarterback tiers. Jackson ranked in Tier 2, but the story came from one anonymous defensive coach who said Jackson struggled to win when he’s forced to throw, a popular belief held by many and one that he has arguably disproved several times.
“If he has to pass to win the game, they ain’t winning the game,” the coordinator told Sando. “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.”
In defense of the anonymous coordinator, Sando explained how the quote may have been taken out of context.
“It’s not even the whole quote, it’s the worst looking part of it,” Sando said. “What was being said by the defensive coordinator was [that] this is an amazing player, but to meet the criteria of Tier 1, he does need to be a better passer than he is. … Until he is, I don’t care if he wins 12 MVP’s, I’m not putting him in that category with [Aaron] Rodgers and [Patrick] Mahomes and those other guys. Everyone in the league thinks the guys in Tier 1 are much better passers than Lamar Jackson.”
Ahead of Jackson in Tier 1 are, in order, Rodgers, Mahomes, Tom Brady, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow. Tier 2 begins with Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson before reaching Jackson at No. 10 overall and fourth in the second grouping.
Tier 1 is defined as a quarterback who “can carry his team each week. The team wins because of him. He expertly handles pure passing situations. He has no real holes in his game.”
Tier 2 is for those who “can carry his team sometimes but not as consistently. He can handle pure passing situations in doses and/or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a hole or two in his game.”
“I don’t think anyone in the league thinks that Lamar Jackson expertly handles pure pass situations,” Sando said. “The debate is, should he be in Tier 1 anyway? Because he’s obviously so special as a player overall.”
Sando polls and talks to dozens of league executives and coaches before the annual tier ranking is published. Some believe that Jackson should be in Tier 1 and push back on the Tier 1 definition. But overall, Jackson has fallen in the rankings during the past few years.
Ahead of the 2020 season, 16 voters put Jackson in Tier 1 compared to just eight this year, the same number of voters who put him even further down in Tier 3. Jackson has also been jumped by a few quarterbacks. Stafford and young stars Herbert and Burrow all leapfrogged Jackson entering 2022.
One offensive coach Sando spoke with mentioned Jackson’s struggles last season beginning with the Week 10 loss to Miami, a game in which the Dolphins’ defensive pressure stifled him en route to a 22-10 loss. But Sando personally doesn’t like using small sample sizes to make distinctions like the offensive coach did.
“I don’t want to latch on to the one comeback against the Colts any more than a tough skid of games,” he said. “Quarterbacks have tough skids.”
The debates surrounding Jackson’s place among the NFL’s best signal callers is fascinating, according to Sando. Whatever some anonymous defensive coaches may have to say regarding Jackson’s abilities, the large majority of football minds know the quarterback belongs near the top of any list.
“The thing is, people respect Lamar Jackson,” Sando said. “But they do believe that to get into Tier 1 he needs to be better at passing the football because the game gets reduced to that and critical moments. … They want to see a better, more consistently accurate passing game led by him.”
For more from Sando, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox