Did NFL coaches, executives shade Lamar Jackson in ranking Ravens, Bills HC openings?

The Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills have multiple things in common this winter. 

Both clubs have MVP Award-winning quarterbacks in their physical primes in Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. Both teams failed to qualify for the upcoming AFC Championship Game, albeit in different ways. Both franchises fired their head coaches in January after John Harbaugh and Sean McDermott failed to guide their teams to a Super Bowl appearance this season. 

Some around the league may have said plenty about how they view Jackson and Allen by how they ranked the two head-coaching openings. 

Are Bills or Ravens seen as more attractive job for head-coaching candidates? 

For a piece published on Wednesday, Jeff Howe of The Athletic spoke with "coaches and high-ranking team executives to rank the head-coaching vacancies by job attractiveness." Based on a system where a first-place vote was worth 10 points, the Bills finished atop the list with 96 points and seven first-place votes. The Ravens were second with 88 points and only a pair of first-place votes.

"Not even close," one former head coach said about giving his first-place vote to the Bills. Additionally, Howe wrote that respondents said a coaching candidate should want to "take Allen and figure out the rest later." 

One couldn't blame Jackson for taking such a comment personally. Both Jackson and Allen entered the NFL via the 2018 draft, and Jackson has thus far earned MVP Award honors on two occasions. Allen became a first-time MVP last year, but some said at the time that Jackson had a stronger case to win the award. 

Why some within the league may prefer Josh Allen over Lamar Jackson

"Jackson’s game still isn’t for everyone, and injuries have knocked him out for multiple games in three of the past five years," Howe explained. "While it can be dangerous to overthink things with Jackson, it’s still important for the head coach to be on the same wavelength as the franchise quarterback."

Specifically, injuries sidelined Jackson for 11 games (playoffs included) from the start of the 2021 season through the end of the 2022 campaign. More recently, he was limited to 13 starts this season due to a lingering hamstring issue and a back injury. 

One unnamed team executive referred to the Ravens as "the model of stability." If that model isn't enough for Baltimore's opening to be seen as the best available job, one would have to think it's because multiple executives and coaches would rather work with Allen over Jackson.