Lamar Jackson isn’t just this season’s NFL MVP. He’s the MVP of an idea.

Baltimore Ravens star may be edged by Josh Allen for award, but it’s Jackson who has liberated constraints of quarterbacking

Star Black quarterbacks no longer are the exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the football season, this series will explore the prominence and impact of Black quarterbacks from the grassroots level to the NFL.

BALTIMORE — With a 35-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, the Baltimore Ravens clinched the AFC North for the second consecutive season. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, the most dynamic QB of his generation, made a final convincing argument to receive a second consecutive league MVP award and third overall.

Jackson filled up the record book. He became the first player in NFL history to reach 4,000 passing yards and 900 rushing yards in the same season. Those 4,000 passing yards surpassed Jackson’s 3,678 total from last season when he was voted league MVP in a virtual landslide.

There’s more: Entering Sunday, Jackson led the NFL in passer rating, yards per pass attempt, passing touchdown percentage and touchdown-to-interception ratio. He has a quarterback rating over 100 in 13 games this year and has thrown three or more touchdowns in six games.

If it sounds like I’m beating the drum for Jackson to receive a third MVP, I am.

The most compelling argument for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen seems to be that Jackson has already won two MVP awards and Allen has never won. I really won’t mind if Allen receives the award because the significance of Jackson goes beyond numbers. Jackson has been a singular force that has made it possible for the Josh Allens of the world to break out of the box that constrained athleticism at the quarterback position for decades. The box has been obliterated, thanks in large part to Jackson.

Allen can be swashbuckling because Jackson is dynamic. In the long evolution of the quarterback position, Jackson has normalized athleticism. He has made athleticism at the quarterback position more than a luxury item, but a mandatory component of success. In the process, he has created a vibrant runway for future generations of young athletic players who aspire to play the position.

This has not only saved the careers of young Black athletes who once were routinely rerouted to the receiving corps or the defensive secondary. Jackson has liberated young white quarterbacks from the suffocating restraints and norms that defined the position.

Last week against the Houston Texans, Jackson broke Michael Vick’s career rushing yards record for a quarterback. While Vick was treated as a novelty in the NFL, Jackson has forced change at the position to be systemic and far-reaching. This in itself has earned Jackson a perennial MVP award.

But back to this season.

Allen has been amazing, no question. Indeed, the greatest argument for his MVP ascendancy —besides the fact that Jackson has two awards and Allen has none — is that he has done more this season with less.

The Bills jettisoned mainstay receivers Stefon Diggs and Gabriel Davis and replaced them with a complement of lesser known but competent pass catchers. This has allowed Allen to drive the Bills’ bus as he sees fit without having to worry about soothing egos. Allen has taken over games — in fact after his performance against the then-undefeated Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 18, Allen seemed to have wrapped up the MVP race.

But then Lamar Jackson kept being Lamar Jackson with pinpoint passing and dynamic, strategic running. He achieved the fourth-highest single-season passer rating in NFL history. The fact that Jackson has won two MVP awards without winning a championship is evidence of how powerful his influence has been.

Truth is, Jackson has enjoyed one of the best regular seasons by a quarterback in NFL history. But Jackson’s numbers may not be enough to catapult him past Allen, who has emerged as something of a sentimental candidate for league MVP honors this season.

So be it.

In 2021 and 2022, Allen came close to the 4,000 passing/800 rushing milestone. He fell 37 rushing yards short in 2021 and 38 yards short in 2022. The reality is that Allen and Jackson have larger fish to fry. Neither of them has won or even played for a Super Bowl championship. Although Jackson led Baltimore to a playoff victory last season, the crushing home loss to Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game defined the Ravens’ offseason and current season.

While Jackson and Allen fight for the MVP award, the player they have in common — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes — reigns supreme with three Super Bowl championships. And Mahomes didn’t even make the All-Pro team this season. That tells you what awards are worth.

During the playoffs last year, the Chiefs — playing without homefield advantage for the first time in ages — marched into Buffalo and beat the Bills.

A week later, Kansas City stormed into Baltimore and beat the Ravens.

The common wisdom is that Jackson would trade in another MVP award for a shot at the Super Bowl. I don’t know about that but, throughout the season, Jackson has been singularly focused on winning a championship.

For all of the praise being heaped on him, for all of my talk about what an innovator he has been, Jackson knows he will be defined by his playoff failures and playoff successes. After Saturday’s game, Jackson was asked about his record-setting numbers this season.

“I’m focused on the Wild Card Game,” Jackson said, but he also was appreciative of the numbers he has compiled. “I’m not going to lie to you, I’m cool with what’s going on today. I’m cool, don’t get me wrong, but my mind is on something else.”

Something else is reaching the Super Bowl.

Win or lose, Jackson’s influence is so much greater than statistics and a one-season performance, or even a third MVP award. After Saturday’s game, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said as much.

“Four thousand, one hundred and seventy-two yards passing, 41 touchdown passes,” Harbaugh said. “How many interceptions? Four? OK, that’s pretty unbelievable. What else needs to be said? And, not just that, but the dude is a competitor. He’s a fighter.”

Since the Ravens moved up to draft Jackson, Harbaugh has been one of the quarterback’s greatest advocates and most ferocious defenders with good reason. After Harbaugh inserted Jackson into the starting lineup for an injured Joe Flacco in 2018, the Ravens have never looked back. Jackson helped turn the team’s fortunes around, leading the Ravens to a division title and becoming the youngest NFL quarterback to start a playoff game.

In those early days, while Jackson was learning to play the position, Harbaugh was protective and sensitive to the coded language aimed at diminishing Jackson’s ability to play the position with mental as well as physical acuity. In those early days, Harbaugh and I had a number of sidebar conversations about what he perceived as the media’s condescending attitude toward Jackson and the idea advanced by more than a few critics that Jackson was a running back playing quarterback.

What makes Jackson’s performance this season so impressive is that he has excelled precisely in the areas that were considered to be his weakness. He has played from the pocket — the holy grail for purists — and has been “accurate,” the new code word for intelligent.

Jackson continues to be an inspiration, even as he remains hidden in plain sight. We really don’t know that much about Lamar Jackson. We know that aspiring young quarterbacks of every ethnicity and at every level of competition embrace mobility as a way of life. There was a mold, and Jackson has shattered it.

“He’s just one of a kind. There’s nobody like Lamar Jackson,” Harbaugh said.

If Allen wins this year’s MVP, the award will be well-earned. But let’s be clear: Allen may win the award, but Jackson is the MVP of an idea whose time has clearly come.