When Lamar Jackson came into the world, Brett Favre was winning three straight MVPs and leading the Packers to consecutive Super Bowls. At the end of that stretch, Favre turned 28. Four days before the Ravens host the Steelers in a first-round playoff, Jackson turned 28 on Tuesday.
The average age of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks is 28.15 years. Bob Griese, Joe Montana, Kurt Warner and Patrick Mahomes won Super Bowls at age 28. So did the only two Ravens quarterbacks to win the Lombardi Trophy, Trent Dilfer in Super Bowl XXXV and Joe Flacco in Super Bowl XLVII – the last time the NFL held the event in New Orleans.
So, give Jackson the benefit of history when Baltimore (12-5) hosts Pittsburgh (10-7) on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video) in the wild card round of the AFC playoffs. Just don’t look at his career postseason record.
Head coach John Harbaugh has said players develop calluses over their careers, just as golfers develop them on their hands. On many occasions, players have to experience adverse friction before they triumph. Asked Monday whether Jackson’s past postseason experience will serve him well going forward, Harbaugh didn’t need many words.
“Yes. There’s your answer,” said Harbaugh, who’s preparing for his 23rd postseason game as the Ravens’ head coach. “I’d like to elaborate, but there’s really no elaboration. It’s pretty clear that that’s the truth.”
Jackson has been truth this season. He’ll get plenty of MVP votes this week after finishing with an NFL-leading 119.6 passer rating. With 41 touchdown passes and four interceptions this season, he also became the first player ever to throw for 40 TDs with fewer than five INTs.
Jackson was a rookie the first time he started a playoff game, in the 2018 playoffs. But when the Ravens lost to the Chargers, many thought Baltimore fell to a better team. That wasn’t the case a year later, when Derrick Henry and the Titans came into Baltimore and stunned the NFL by taking down the AFC’s Super Bowl favorite, 28-12. Henry in that game had 195 rushing yards and passed for a touchdown. Obviously, the Ravens gave Jackson the best early birthday present they could give when they signed Henry. He’s on Jackson’s team this time around.
“That’s why he’s here,” Harbaugh said, referring to Henry. “He’s done a great job, and we’re going to be leaning on him bigtime, just like we are all of our guys. It’s a team game, and that’s what we’re going to do, try to bring every aspect of what we bring to the table, all our firepower. We’ll try to execute as best we can, try to put the best schemes together as we can to make the calculus add up at the end of the day. That’s it. That’s how it works.”
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