"Lamar Jackson is the Peyton Manning of his generation": Bomani Jones draws parallels between Ravens QB and 5x MVP
It was a case of deja vu for Lamar Jackson on Thursday night. The Baltimore Ravens, who reloaded in the offseason, went up against the mighty Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. And despite Hollywood Brown missing the game, the Chiefs came out on top thanks to Patrick Mahomes and rookie WR Xavier Worthy. Lamar Jackson, on the other hand, was left to rue what could have been.
Baltimore trailed by double digits in the fourth quarter. It closed that gap down to 27-20 but incompletions from Jackson meant the Ravens were fighting an uphill battle. Despite the odds, with five seconds on the clock, Jackson found tight end Isaiah Likely in the end zone but replays showed he landed outside the end zone by a whisker. And that was that.
The Chiefs came away with yet another win with Taylor Swift looking on (though not in Brittany Mahomes' suite, but that's another story) and the Ravens had to settle for the salty taste of defeat. That loss prompted yet another debate regarding Jackson's winning credentials. NFL analyst Bomani Jones tackled that issue on his Right Time podcast this week, comparing Jackson to five-time MVP Peyton Manning.
“Lamar Jackson has managed to win two MVPs. Their record is off the charts. If you want to call it a Brock Purdy and say ‘All he does is win,’ you have to give the same credit to Lamar Jackson. The problem is there aren’t that many people who exist in both camps where they look at Brock Purdy and see a winner and look at Lamar Jackson and see something similar," Jones said.
Why Bomani Jones believes Lamar Jackson is the Peyton Manning of this generation
That Manning is one of the finest quarterbacks to line up under center is not up for debate. But Manning's tally of Super Bowl wins is sometimes held against him in certain respects. Jones made a similar point while in a comparison with Lamar Jackson:
“I think he’s the Peyton Manning of his generation in the sense that he’s the two-time MVP but he hasn’t done it in the postseason. If you want to get on him for being one of the five best QBs in the league but not having that level of postseason success yet, I’m with you. If you want to act like he’s not one of the five best quarterbacks in his league, you’re smoking rocks!”
Manning's postseason record stands at 14-13. The first of those wins came while he was with the Colts back in a 2003 Wild Card win over the Denver Broncos. Manning threw five touchdowns in that game.
So far in his career, Lamar Jackson's playoff win total stands at 2-4. The last of those losses came against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game earlier this year.