Ask the Ravens about Lamar Jackson and they’ll tell you he’s Rembrant. Picasso. Mozart. Einstein. Newton. This means two things. One is that he’s brilliant, the kind of comet that flies past our periphery once every 100 years. The other? No one else sees the world or the game of football quite like him. That can be both a tremendous advantage and something to work through. 

That’s the thing about genius: It rarely translates from one person to another. It cannot be absorbed or passed on. It takes an infrastructure to support it and, most of the time, is so reliant on the continued stability of the genius themself. It came to mind on Sunday night, when Baltimore was effectively eliminated from the playoffs after Jackson went down with a back injury. Jackson will end up having played at most 14 games this year, though that seems like a stretch. He has played two complete seasons in the NFL, two 15-game seasons, two 12-game seasons and his rookie season when he was not a regular starter all year. 

Obviously, without Jackson—at full strength and not hampered by any kind of soft tissue or lower-body injury that impacts his mobility—the Ravens lose the tailwind that comes from having a player who can regularly conjure the impossible. The offense looks pedestrian without him and, in 2025, has scored about 12 fewer points per game and swung from a 1.51 EPA per play rate to a minus-8.47 EPA per play rate. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the team, placing a great deal of faith in its offensive personnel and coaches, overlooked the backup quarterback position this offseason. Baltimore’s inability to even partially replicate its offensive efficiency with Cooper Rush during the early portion of the season ended up costing Baltimore a playoff spot. 

When taking all of this into consideration, adding in that Jackson’s mega-extension will again need to be reworked, the solution seems abundantly clear to me: The Ravens do not need to trade Jackson. They don’t need to fire John Harbaugh. But they do need to make 2026 their “Jordan Love” year and draft a worthy successor to Jackson, which would buttress the Ravens against the kind of collapse we saw this season, give the team a position of strength at the negotiating table and facilitate a situation like Green Bay enjoyed with late-Packer Aaron Rodgers, who won back-to-back MVP awards, in part, after submitting to an offense that more effectively balanced his skill set with a sensible run game. Having a young, cost-controlled backup quarterback with upside is often the ultimate revelation of character at the starting position and gives the team a multitude of options. 

And it’s not out of character for the organization whatsoever. Jackson, who will turn 29 in a few weeks, was a luxury pick at the back end of the first round in 2018, with Joe Flacco having just completed his age-32 season. Baltimore had just 8–8 and then 9–7, missing the playoffs each time. While Flacco was clearly losing his effectiveness in that offense and the Ravens desired to make a hard pivot, the circumstances were quite different, yet the ethos is still the same. Being prepared and having foresight, especially at the quarterback position, is the smartest preventative measure a team can make. 

This is exceedingly true when it comes to Jackson. While he has come out of his shell—or at least something closer to it—Jackson is self-represented and keeps a tight circle. Negotiations almost always become contentious. It could easily reinforce his belief that few people should be trusted. Of course this complicates everything, from getting an authentic read on what he’s feeling, parsing what is important to him and, at the most basic level, finding ways to understand football through his incredible mind. 

Personality aside, it is difficult to ignore the injury factor and the ravages of time. If you remove illness and rest with a playoff spot already clinched, Jackson has appeared on an NFL injury report 17 times. Jackson also has only about 800 fewer carries than Saquon Barkley, who was drafted the same year (1,077 to 1,807). Many of those are kneeldowns in victory formation, but you can add in that Jackson has been sacked 225 times in his career and hit in the pocket 178 times. I have zero—zero—doubt that Jackson’s arm talent can help him translate seamlessly into a different phase of his career once his outlier athleticism winnows to the point where it is no longer an advantage. But Baltimore does not know what that looks like yet.  

Which brings us to this year’s draft. Baltimore would have the 14th pick based on current standings, in a quarterback class that serves as the preamble to a much more anticipated 2027 group, which could mean a shorter line between the Ravens and a promising option at the position. If Jackson is healthy next season, the Ravens are going to almost certainly be boxed out from taking a top-tier quarterback in the following draft. 

The Ravens, organizationally, also have the flexibility and foresight to be able to take a prospect fewer teams see value in and build an offense specific to his skill set, which is exactly what happened when the team deftly read the tea leaves of the NFL and pivoted to a multidimensional offense that set the Ravens up for another half-decade of success and competitiveness. 

Obviously, it’s simplistic for any of us to say, Just do that again, but it’s imperative that the Ravens try. Because failing to do so leaves them at the fragile whim of genius, and all that entails, both good and bad. No one is saying that Jackson needs to go, but the sensible among us are saying that Jackson needs a safety net that can one day grow into his replacement on a structured rookie contract. That way if Jackson is hurt, disaffected, on his way out or simply less himself, it won’t matter nearly as much as it did Sunday.  

More NFL From Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as It’s Time for the Ravens to Draft a Young QB Behind Lamar Jackson.

Add as preferred source on Google