Ravens Rival Claims Lamar Jackson Lacks Clutch Gene

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson ranked as the No. 4 quarterback in the league behind Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals in a recent ESPN survey.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark believes he's ranked right where he should be.

"There's a reason Lamar Jackson has as many MVPs as Patrick Mahomes but the executives and the coaches voted him the fourth-best quarterback," Clark said. "It's not because I haven't seen him play better in the regular season than Joe Burrow, I haven't seen him play better in the regular season than Josh Allen, it's because those guys have actually shown up in the playoffs."

Jackson is coming off arguably the best season of his NFL career. In 2024, he threw for a career-high 4,172 yards and 41 touchdowns and rushed for 915 yards and four more scores.

However, the two-time NFL MVP failed to help the Ravens get over the hump in the playoffs once again, losing 27-25 to the Bills in the divisional round.

It wasn't all his fault, though. Tight end Mark Andrews had a costly fumble in the fourth quarter and then dropped a wide open pass in the end zone on the two-point conversion that would have tied the game.

Clark understands that but still doesn't think it is an excuse.

"I get it. To put it all on Lamar is a lot," Clark said. "But the reason that these dudes sit at the top of the greatest of all time's conversations is because of how they lift their teams in the playoffs, and we haven't seen Lamar do that yet."

It may be a bit ironic coming from Clark, whose former team hasn't won a playoff game in the past eight seasons, but Baltimore is starting to run out of excuses as it continues to field one of the best rosters in the league every year.

Maybe Jackson and the Ravens will finally silence their doubters in 2025.