Lamar Jackson doesn’t pal around with opposing quarterbacks. It’s nothing personal, he insists. He just doesn’t believe in getting close to players who share his goals and are standing in his way of achieving them.
But Jackson has long professed his respect for his Buffalo Bills counterpart, Josh Allen, and it was on full display about 7 1/2 months ago when the Ravens quarterback was forced to digest one of the most difficult losses of his career.
After a kneeldown ran off the final seconds of the Bills’ 27-25 victory over the Ravens in the AFC divisional playoff round, Allen and Jackson came together near the Baltimore sideline at Highmark Stadium. The two shared an extended embrace and some words of support.
“Great players recognize greatness, and we both recognize each other,” Jackson said after the game. “I told him, ‘Man, go get something. Go win something: MVP, Super Bowl, do something.’ I want him to be successful.”
A few weeks later, Allen won his first MVP award, edging Jackson in a much-debated vote. Yet, when the Bills were beaten by the Kansas City Chiefs in a pulsating AFC Championship Game, Allen was again denied an opportunity to play for the one trophy he and Jackson covet most.
The Ravens and Bills, Jackson and Allen, meet again Sunday night in Buffalo. The weather will be much warmer than it was in January, when a thin layer of snow collected on parts of the field in Western New York. The stakes will be nowhere near as high. This is Week 1 of a potential five-month journey for two teams projected to be among the NFL’s best.
But the prominent question surrounding the two quarterbacks remains the same: Is this finally the year Allen or Jackson gets their team over the hump and knocks Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs off their lofty AFC perch?
That question can’t and won’t be answered Sunday, but the result will undoubtedly be used as a referendum for which quarterback and team has the best chance come January.
“Listen, it’s a statement game in many ways,” said ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky. “These two teams, we firmly believe, are going to be vying for the 1-seed. This game will matter for the 1-seed, more than likely. We all know the difference playing each team home and away. While it’s not going to be the end-all, be-all, and the singular determination for what this season becomes for them, I would be surprised if it doesn’t matter when it comes to where that win-or-go-home game is being played.”
Since the Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII behind strong-armed quarterback Joe Flacco following the 2012 regular season, three quarterbacks have essentially dominated the AFC playoffs.
Over the last dozen years, Mahomes has led the Chiefs to five Super Bowl appearances, including three in a row. Tom Brady took the New England Patriots to four during that span, and Peyton Manning went to two with the Denver Broncos. Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals crashed the Super Bowl LVI party and were beaten by the Los Angeles Rams following the 2021 regular season.
Thus, Allen and Jackson are hardly alone in being kept off the NFL’s biggest stage, but they are the biggest names on the “haven’t gotten there” quarterback marquee. As the winners of the last two MVP awards, they are also the ones under the most pressure to knock down the door and deliver their teams to Santa Clara, Calif., in February.
Pundits seemingly believe they have the teams around them this year to do it. The Ravens and Bills have been two of the most popular Super Bowl picks, not that it matters to Jackson or anybody else in the Ravens’ and Bills’ locker rooms.
“Can’t go to the Super Bowl without making it to the playoffs, so we’ve got to focus on Buffalo right now,” Jackson said this week. “We can’t peak too soon. This is extremely early to be thinking about a Super Bowl.”
Aside from Josh Rosen, who has been out of the NFL since 2023, the much-ballyhooed 2018 first-round quarterback class has aged well.
First pick Baker Mayfield found a home in Tampa Bay and has led the Buccaneers to back-to-back NFC South titles. Taken third by the New York Jets that year, Sam Darnold resuscitated his career in Minnesota and was paid handsomely this offseason by the Seattle Seahawks to be their starter.
Allen was selected No. 7, and all he’s done is lead the Bills to five straight AFC East crowns, six consecutive playoff berths and two conference championship games. Drafted with the final pick of the first round, Jackson is 70-24 in the regular season as a starter, and the Ravens have been to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons — the exception coming in 2021, when Jackson missed the final four games with an injury.
In many ways, Allen and Jackson faced the most scrutiny during the pre-draft process, yet their development as quarterbacks has been the most linear. They are also now the two most closely linked because of numerous similarities and circumstances with their respective teams and careers.
“One, they are unapologetically themselves,” Orlovsky said. “Two, they haven’t allowed success to change them. Three, they’re absolutely beloved by their organizations and the community that they play in. Josh was under-recruited. Lamar was under-recruited. Josh was hated in the draft by some. Lamar was hated throughout the draft process. Obviously, Lamar was probably a little more culturally and societally hated upon or narrative-driven.
“Both went through some ups and downs to start their NFL career. Both were doubted. Their journeys have a lot more similarities than being dissimilar.”
They’ve also both never shied away from talking about their obsession with winning a Super Bowl. With Jackson, it infiltrates just about every conversation he has with teammates at the Under Armour Performance Center. In a recent episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” Allen acknowledges that he’s had visions of what a Super Bowl parade would look and feel like in Buffalo. It’s fitting because both teams have earned the right to harbor legitimate championship aspirations,
The Bills return the crux of their roster that lost by three points to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium with a Super Bowl berth on the line last season, including their entire starting offensive line, which is one of the league’s best units. They added wide receiver Joshua Palmer and pass rusher Joey Bosa to the mix.
Baltimore returns 10 of its 11 starters on offense and filled in defensive holes with early-round draft picks Malaki Starks and Mike Green and veteran free-agent signings Jaire Alexander and Chidobe Awuzie.
“I like playing against great teams. I like being in big games. I like being in games that everybody’s talking about, right?” said Bills standout left tackle Dion Dawkins. “It puts more attention on the good guys, which is us. Lamar is what you think about when you think about the Ravens, and to be able to play against the former MVP, and now we have the current MVP, it’s just cool, man. It’s almost like some video game stuff, like where you just pick two of the best teams (and) just play.”
As is customary with these two, Allen and Jackson downplayed the quarterback matchup Sunday.
“You talk about Lamar, he’s one of the best players to touch the grass, honestly,” Allen said. “You can’t give him more opportunities than he needs. You can’t give him short fields. He’ll take advantage of those. … On the offensive side, we don’t play the quarterback. We play the defense and the defensive coordinator. Just doing everything that we can to help our defense out.”
Jackson also dismissed the idea that Allen winning a tight MVP race provides any extra motivation for him heading into Week 1, although Ravens quarterbacks coach Tee Martin, who is extremely close with Jackson, remarked, “What’s understood doesn’t need to be spoken.”
“The voters voted for who they voted for,” said Jackson, who won MVPs in 2019 and 2023. “That’s how they felt. It is what it is. My motivation is the Super Bowl. I’m trying to win the Super Bowl. If MVPs come, I’ll be grateful, but I’m trying to win the Super Bowl.”
Sunday could be a tone-setting game for both teams, but a strong case could be made that it carries more significance for the Ravens. As Baltimore running back Derrick Henry said Thursday, “They advanced and we didn’t. They have the upper hand on us.”
The Ravens also have a much more difficult schedule out of the box. After their home opener against the Cleveland Browns in Week 2, the Ravens face four returning playoff teams in succession. They’re home against the Detroit Lions in Week 3, at the Chiefs in Week 4 and have back-to-back home games against the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Rams in Weeks 5 and 6. The Bills, meanwhile, won’t face another team that went to the playoffs last season until they get the Chiefs at home in Week 9.
Inevitably, though, both teams — and both quarterbacks — have put themselves in the position where they will be judged by what they do in January and potentially beyond. Sunday night will feel, in many ways, like a warm-up act.
“I think everyone sits there and says, ‘Ridiculously good players, great quarterbacks eventually win the Super Bowl.’ They just do,” Orlovsky said. “That’s what everyone is kind of rooting for. I can say that about that first game of the season, both him and Josh. I’m actively rooting for those guys to win a Super Bowl.”