Lamar Jackson’s Playoff Woes Define Him But He Has Time

For the fifth time in his five playoff appearances as a starter, Lamar Jackson is headed home earlier than expected. The Baltimore Ravens star quarterback had a disastrous first half in Buffalo, with two self-inflicted turnovers that put the Ravens in a 21-10 hole at halftime. While Jackson rebounded in the fourth quarter after Derrick Henry and the rushing attack got them back into the game, the Ravens fell just short of a huge comeback win as a two-point conversion attempt to tie the game got dropped by the normally sure-handed Mark Andrews (which capped off his own disastrous afternoon).

Unfortunately for Jackson, Sunday’s Divisional round loss to the Bills felt like a continuation of his postseason struggles of the past. The two-time MVP (who could become the three-time MVP soon) has established himself as one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks in the regular season, but has never won two playoff games in the same year. In five playoff starts, he has 10 turnovers, with at least one in each, and has produced just six touchdowns through the air or on the ground. Even as he seems to level his game up every regular season, he cannot find a way to maintain that progress in the postseason.

This year in the regular season, Jackson was ruthlessly efficient as a passer, producing more touchdowns (41) with fewer interceptions (4) than anyone in the league. It took three drives in Buffalo, however, to add high octane fuel to the narrative machine. The book on Jackson in the playoffs has been that if you can get him under pressure, he will try to do too much and get himself in trouble. After leading an impressive opening drive march for a touchdown, the Bills heated up Jackson early on the second drive and got him to sail a pass to a safety, with the intended receiver nowhere near. A drive later, with the Ravens moving into Bills territory, they again brought pressure and, after saving a bad snap, Jackson got wrapped up low. While trying to change hands and create a miracle, he dropped the ball in the frigid Buffalo cold.

To be clear, the Ravens playoff failures of the last seven years do not rest entirely on Jackson’s shoulders. A year ago at home against Kansas City there was the catastrophic Zay Flowers fumble on the goal line that turned a would-be Jackson touchdown pass into a Baltimore turnover down 10. This year, it was Andrews who contributed considerably. He had an early drop, but it was the fourth quarter where things unraveled for him. He had a horrific fumble after a great Jackson play to seemingly convert a big on third down and the Ravens looking to take their first lead of the game, and then, of course, had the dropped two-point conversion on a decent but not great pass.

Still, everything comes back to the quarterback when it comes to team success in the playoffs, especially when falling short of expectations becomes a trend. There has been a recent trend of backlash to the backlash about that, with people complaining that we as sports fans can put too much weight behind small samples of postseason failures compared to the much larger samples of regular season greatness. The problem with that is, the playoffs are by definition a small sample. After what is now a 17-game season, teams play either three or four games to decide a champion. Those games do in fact mean more and have more weight behind them, and when it comes time to compare the all-time greats at the most important position on the field, postseason success is the separator.

There is certainly a segment of fans and media members that take it too far trying to say he’s just outright bad, and Jackson being a Black quarterback makes him an especially big (and oftentimes unfair) target for criticism. However, I do not think there is anything unfair about highlighting the consistencies in Jackson’s playoff struggles and noting that they are, for now, what keep him out of that very exclusive club at the top of the quarterback world. There’s nothing new about that, and Jackson is far from the first to find himself in this position. At only 28 years old, he still has time to change the narrative, too.

John Elway might be the all-time example. In his first seven playoff appearances, Elway had 18 interceptions in 14 games, as his Broncos teams constantly fell short of winning a title. Elway lost three Super Bowls in four years, all in blowout fashion, and then went eight years without another trip, seemingly heading for the list of greatest QBs to never win. Then, at the age of 37 and 38, Elway won two championships and redefined how people talked about him.

Peyton Manning is a more recent example and, perhaps, is the one most aligned with Lamar’s trajectory as a star QB who just so happens to be running up against a budding dynasty and the arguable GOAT in his prime. In Manning’s first eight years in the league, he won two MVPs but could just never get over the hump in the postseason. In both of his MVP seasons, Manning lost to Tom Brady’s Patriots in the playoffs, with him throwing five combined interceptions in those two games. He faced the same questions about whether he was built for postseason success, and watched as Brady put ring after ring on his fingers, the way Jackson has seen Patrick Mahomes do the same. But in 2006, Manning finally broke through in his ninth season and seventh playoff appearance, adding another in 2015 with the Broncos to cement his spot as one of the all-time greats.

Jackson could very well be on that track, or perhaps he’ll end up like Dan Marino — an unquestioned great who rewrote regular season record books but never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy and, as such, gets left out of the GOAT conversation except for a handful of people who will simply never forget his talent and watching him play. At 28 years old, Jackson still figures to have a number of years ahead of him in his prime and is on a team that perennially is in the mix in the AFC. And the truth is, he’s not the only QB who took the field in Buffalo on Sunday evening in this pursuit right now — Josh Allen bought himself at least one more week away from this conversation, but if he falls short against Patrick Mahomes again, the chatter will pick back up about him not being able to win The Big One as well.

Legacies are defined by the postseason. It doesn’t mean there’s no meaning to the regular season success and shouldn’t take away from how much anyone enjoys watching someone like Jackson play. However, particularly when it comes to the quarterback position, how you play in the playoffs is always going to matter the most. For Jackson, he has simply not lived up to his full potential in those moments. The beauty of sports is, it’s in his power to change that perspective. The small sample of the postseason can be a curse, but it’s also a blessing. Right now, he’s defined by eight games. It will take just three or four to rewrite his story.