OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — John Harbaugh wasn't going to wade into the debate over whether Lamar Jackson should win a third NFL MVP award this season.
Instead, he stuck to the obvious.
“He's my MVP. He'll always be my MVP — I promise you that,” the Baltimore coach said. “Yes, as far as I’m concerned, he’s our MVP, he’s our guy.”
Local media agreed, honoring Jackson with the team MVP in voting announced Tuesday — a suspense-free tally if there ever was one. The bigger question is whether Jackson can win yet another NFL MVP when balloting for that AP award takes place. If so, he would join some pretty impressive company.
Only six players have won that honor three times: Peyton Manning (five), Aaron Rodgers (four), Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown. Players with exactly two MVPs include Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Kurt Warner, Steve Young and Joe Montana.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen (-300) was the MVP favorite this season, according to BetMGM, with Jackson (+225) as the only particularly close challenger. If Allen wins, he'd be the league's first first-time MVP since Jackson in 2019.
Jackson said last week it's hard to avoid the MVP conversation since he's often tagged into it online.
“If it does happen, it happens. That’d be dope — three times,” Jackson said. “That’s never been my goal though. Even the first or second one, it's never been my goal. I always want to finish with the championship, but I’ve been falling short.”
This weekend the Ravens have bigger concerns. They're heavily favored against Cleveland, and a win Saturday would wrap up the AFC North title and a home playoff game for Baltimore.
But Jackson's individual accomplishments will be tracked closely as well. He enters the game with a passer rating of 121.6. The league record for a single season is 122.5 by Rodgers in 2011, the first time he was MVP.
Jackson might not win it this time around, despite leading Allen in touchdown passes, yards passing and yards rushing, and throwing fewer interceptions. Last season, Allen bested Jackson in yards passing and touchdowns (both passing and rushing), but Jackson won MVP after leading Baltimore to the league's best regular-season record.
This season it's Allen and the Bills (13-3) who will finish ahead of the Ravens (11-5) in postseason seeding. Buffalo lost big to Baltimore head to head in September, but Allen led the Bills to signature victories over Kansas City and Detroit — teams that could both end up as No. 1 seeds in their conferences.
It's no surprise where Jackson's center, Tyler Linderbaum, stands on the matter.
“You see him every day, the things he's able to do, and carrying it over to the game. He's a special player,” Linderbaum said. “He's extremely fun to play with, just the things he's able to do. There's no one more deserving of that award than Lamar Jackson.”
As much as this debate consumes NFL talk right now, by the time the award is presented a few days before the Super Bowl, either Jackson or Allen — or perhaps both — will have fallen short of that goal again.
NOTES: Local media also voted Linderbaum as this year's “Good Guy” for accessibility and insight. ... RB Justice Hill (concussion/illness), DT Nnamdi Madubuike (illness), G Patrick Mekari (illness), T Ronnie Stanley (illness) and CB Jalyn Armour-Davis (hamstring) missed practice Tuesday. WR Nelson Agholor (concussion) and TE Charlie Kolar (forearm) were full participants.
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Noah Trister, The Associated Press
