Ravens’ Lamar Jackson Historically Good Passer?

For years, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson faced tons of criticism over his perceived struggles as a passer, to the point where some of that criticism being downright absurd.

He's fully silenced those critics now, though.

Jackson put together one of the best passing seasons ever by a quarterback in 2024, becoming the first to ever throw for 40+ touchdowns with fewer than five interceptions. His passer rating of 119.6 was the fourth highest in NFL history, and his four games with a perfect 158.3 passer rating were the most in a single season.

With a historic season under Jackson's belt, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh believes he should be seen as one of the league's best all-time passers, just as he is seen as one of the leagues' best all-time rushing quarterbacks.

"He is a historically good passer," Harbaugh said on Wednesday's edition of ESPN's "This is Football." "And that's really quite a statement because of the narrative that's been surrounding him ever since the beginning. Lamar Jackson can throw the football. He can throw it every kind of way, he can make every kind of throw any kind [of] way you want. He's as good as any passer that there's ever been -- and I think now the numbers are proving that.

"So that's the thing I'm kind of a little bit proud of, but [I'm] also a little bit like, 'OK, here we go, what have we learned from that?' You can take any big picture — from a society standpoint, from a football standpoint — what did we learn from that? And what kinds of questions do we ask ourselves? But, Lamar Jackson as a passer is historically great."

As for how Jackson refined his passing ability, Harbaugh pointed to his unmatched work ethic.

"I'd say the work that you do — if you're going to be good at anything, great at anything, you've got to work at it all the time," Harbaugh said. "I read a story just recently about a classical piano player, he's 95 years old, and he's working six to eight hours a day on playing the piano, and they ask him, 'Why do you still work six to eight hours on the piano?' And his comment was, 'I feel like I'm just starting to make some progress.

"So, that daily, everyday working at your craft kind of thing, I think, is what Lamar does."