Lamar Jackson speaks for The Flock: “We’re ticked off.”
Perhaps for the very first time during his captivating rise to NFL stardom, reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson has finally found the true inspiration for his 2018 NFL Draft Night prognostication.
Ravens fans everywhere certainly remember the moment.
After he was selected as the final pick of the celebrated first round—and forever stamped as the fifth quarterback chosen in that draft class (behind Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen and-ahem-Josh Rosen)— NFL Network’s Deion Sanders asked the former Heisman Trophy winner what the Ravens could expect from the curiously-snubbed talent.
“They’re gonna get a Super Bowl outta me. Believe that. Believe that,” he echoed, with his eyes fixing directly into the camera, as if to herald that only he could determine such an outcome.
And yes, in the two years since his first professional start effectively relegated mostly reliable-Joe Flacco to a fate no better than Wally Pipp, Lamar Jackson has seemingly preordained his many successes.
Just look at his regular season record, to date, as Baltimore’s starting quarterback: 25-6. It’s true, his presence in that huddle is very much the “straw that stirs the drink” in the franchise’s quest for a third Super Bowl title.
But LJ also has his share of demerits that have begun to overshadow his fearless foreshadowing, that one restless spring night in Nashville back in 2018.
Those poor marks are, in no particular order: winless in two consecutive postseasons. Winless against Kansas City (0-3). Winless when trailing by 10 points or more at any point in a game (0-6, including playoffs). Just a single win in eight career games when the Ravens trail at halftime, including playoffs.
Troubling trends, to be sure. And certainly not the kind of results the Ravens sought when they traded back into the first round to nab him at 32nd overall.
And now, in the hollow hours since a crushing defeat to a desperate New England Patriots team, the young superstar has conjured a phrase which actually might portend the prophet’s one-time vision…
“We’re ticked off.”
It’s easy to be the flashy highlight reel.
In 2019—when the Ravens set a franchise record with 14 wins—Lamar Jackson was every bit a highlight reel en route to crushing the voting for the league’s Most Valuable Player.
Most notably, there was that incredible 47-yard touchdown run in Cincinnati last November…when he weaved and dodged—and downright spun 180-degrees—to cap the kind of day which would serve notice to the rest of the league.
Broadcaster Kevin Harlan called him “Houdini” that day. And thousands of Ravens fans in attendance began a soon-to-be familiar chant of “M-V-P.”
Even Jackson himself triggered his own meme, sporting sunglasses on the sideline as only his smile beamed brighter than both the autumn sunshine and his own fortune.
Yes, it’s easy to be the flashy highlight reel.
What’s invariably harder is to be the phoenix; to be a leader in the face of steep adversity.
We saw a bit of that fighter in Lamar back in January 2019, when the Ravens nearly reversed a humbling playoff defeat to the visiting Los Angeles Chargers. But looking back, that smacks almost more of a young player just playing with house money, than a resolute professional recognizing the moment.
We also saw “Lamar the Fighter” during a Week 3 defeat in Kansas City in September of that same year. He helped the Ravens to scrape and claw their way back from a halftime deficit to make the game nearly winnable in the end—only to fall short against the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs, 33-28.
The Ravens wouldn’t endure another loss during that regular season but, by the time the Tennessee Titans rolled into Baltimore just ten months ago for an AFC Divisional Playoff matchup, Lamar the Fighter had likely been too-long under wraps.
There was no realistic comeback to be found on that uncomfortably mild, pre-COVID January night.
Today, the Ravens have lost as many games in the 2020 regular season as they had in all of 2019.
And so, now there’s an almost universal suggestion that opposing defenses have “figured him out.”
But still, no one should deny that Lamar Jackson remains as dangerous and talented as ever.
The real difference is that now he’s ticked off.
Maybe he’s the one who’s figured it out.