We know Lamar Jackson is a pro wrestling fan. Now we get to find out if he’s a “stylin’, profilin’, limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ son of a gun.”
Truthfully, it feels criminal that the AFC championship game will mark the first-ever playoff matchup between the Ravens and Chiefs in the Lamar Jackson-Patrick Mahomes era. Perhaps along with Josh Allen and the Bills, this should have this decade’s version of the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning-Ben Roethlisberger battles of the century’s first two decades. The Ravens’ disappointing early exits and Jackson’s season ending-injuries robbed us of seeing these two generational quarterbacks square off on the sport’s biggest stage … until now.
In the early years of Jackson’s career, matchups with the Chiefs provided the measuring stick for a franchise in transition. All discussions about offseason moves came with the qualifier of whether said move would help them win a hypothetical postseason matchup with Kansas City. The Ravens didn’t need to build the best team, they needed to build the team that had the best chance to beat the Chiefs. Regular-season losses to the Chiefs in each of Jackson’s first three seasons only fortified the significance of Chiefs-based decision-making.
When the Ravens finally overcame Kansas City in 2021, it felt like a transcendent moment. Odafe Oweh’s late strip-sack seemed as though it would finally shift the balance of power within the AFC. The Ravens proved they could do it. They were primed to become the new kings of the conference by repeating the feat in the postseason.
They didn’t get their opportunity that season … or the next. And other variations of AFC quarterback rivalries took center stage in the meantime. Mahomes-Allen, Mahomes-Joe Burrow and Allen-Burrow all had their chances to shine while the idea of an enduring Jackson-Mahomes rivalry sorta faded away.
Until now.
I don’t want to obsess about the significance of the moment for Jackson … but it’s hard not to. It feels like the goalpost is moving, in a sense. A week ago, the narrative surrounding Jackson was his overall lack of playoff success. He proceeded to brilliantly dissect the Houston Texans, prompting this city to say, “What are they going to say now?”
The thing is, we know exactly what they’re going to say now. If the Ravens lose to the Chiefs, they’re going to point out that the only quarterbacks the Ravens have beat in the postseason during the Jackson era were a journeyman (Ryan Tannehill) and a rookie (C.J. Stroud). They’re going to say that Jackson has never beat one of the truly great quarterbacks of the era in a playoff game. It won’t be quite as easy to quantify as “1-3 in the playoffs,” but it will be the knock. And it will be loud and it will be infuriating.
From a global perspective, the game means far less to the two-time Super Bowl champion Mahomes. He’s won far too many playoff games of significance to be judged by any one that he lost. It is significant to him in a historical context, perhaps. A third Super Bowl ring before turning 29 would further cement the possibility that he could work his way into the realm of Tom Brady’s accomplishments before his career is over and complicate the “GOAT” discussion.
But this one game specifically? This specific game is far more meaningful for Jackson than it is for Mahomes. This is the game that changes narratives, albeit with one final narrative still remaining after that. A playoff win against Patrick Mahomes doesn’t definitively mean that Jackson will be acknowledged as a better quarterback than Mahomes. It just means that Mahomes won’t be standing in the way of him being fully embraced as the truly great quarterback we all know he is.
It appears to be set up for the opportunity. The Chiefs have looked “Chiefs-like” again in the postseason but on the whole, they have not been the offensive juggernaut we’ve known them to be in the Mahomes era. The game is in Baltimore in front of what should be an absolutely rabid audience taking in the first AFC title game the city has seen since … literally the first-ever AFC championship game. The Ravens are the more complete team. They’re largely healthy with a chance to be even healthier should tight end Mark Andrews and cornerback Marlon Humphrey return.
Most importantly, they have a soon-to-be two time MVP quarterback playing breathtaking football and as focused as any athlete we’ve seen in this generation of Baltimore sports.
But this is still Patrick Mahomes that we’re talking about. He’s not playing in a sixth straight AFC championship game by luck. He’s the defining player of this era. He’s still the measuring stick.
It is one of the biggest “to be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man” scenarios we’ve seen in our lifetime. Sunday can’t get here soon enough.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox