Seven seasons into his NFL career, Lamar Jackson is officially the king of running quarterbacks.
The Baltimore Ravens star passed Michael Vick for the NFL’s all-time lead in rushing yards among quarterbacks during the NFL’s Christmas game on Wednesday. He entered the game with 6,023 yards, 86 behind Vick’s 6,109.
The record-breaking play came in the third quarter, when Jackson rushed into the red zone to gain six yards and set up a 3rd-and-1 and later a touchdown pass to Mark Andrews. He finished the game with 87 yards and a touchdown on just four rushes, along with 10-of-15 passing for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
The bulk of Jackson’s rushing yards Wednesday came on the Ravens’ second offensive play of the second half, when he took off for a 48-yard touchdown on a read option.
However, the play that most showcased the agility that earned him Vick’s record came on a passing play. The list of players who can survive dancing between the teeth of an NFL defense is very, very short, and one of them also happens to be an elite passing quarterback.
Jackson caught Vick in just 102 games in seven seasons, while the Atlanta Falcons played 143 games in a career that included appearances in 13 seasons. He had already surpassed Vick in other statistical areas, but the rushing yard mark loomed as the biggest.
Vick himself has rarely missed an opportunity to praise Jackson, going all the way back to when he was a Heisman winner at Louisville.
Should Lamar Jackson become the MVP favorite again?
Rewind a week or two ago, and Buffalo Bills star Josh Allen was a heavy favorite to take home his first career MVP award. Now the picture is not so clear.
Allen has been undeniably brilliant this season, but Jackson is capping off perhaps one of the most impressive seasons in NFL history. There are few quarterback efficiency metrics in which Jackson doesn’t lead the NFL, and he’s honestly ahead of Allen in most counting metrics as well.
Those are the passing stats. On the rushing side, Jackson has the edge in rushing yards (765 to 514, entered this week) and yards per attempt (6.1 to 5.3), while Allen has more touchdowns (11 to 3).
On a team level, Jackson’s Ravens are now 11-5 and in position to win the AFC North, while the 12-3 Bills are first in an AFC East that was decided weeks ago. The Ravens have outscored the Bills 35-10 when they played this season.
The race could be deeper than the numbers mentioned above and will no doubt be dissected repeatedly in the coming weeks, but the bottom line is that Jackson is playing better than he did in his first two MVP seasons in a competitive divisional race, and that will be the case. very hard to argue against unless Allen does something magical in the next two games.
