Last year, Lamar Jackson was a co-MVP of the Pro Bowl alongside future teammate Calais Campbell. This year, Jackson was not voted to the Pro Bowl at all.
Some Ravens fans were bothered by the snub, but Jackson treated it just as he has pretty much any individual award – with a shrug of the shoulders.
"We've got [seven] guys on our team that made the Pro Bowl and I like our lineup. It's all good," Jackson said Wednesday.
"I feel like those guys who made it to the Pro Bowl deserve it. There's a lot of great quarterbacks, a lot of great players are going to be in there, so I'm cool with it."
Jackson is definitely right about the Pro Bowl being loaded at quarterback. It's not easy to crack the top three in either conference. The Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes is the starter and Bills' Josh Allen and Deshaun Watson are the other two AFC signal-callers.
Mahomes leads the NFL in passing yards (4,462) and the Chiefs have the best record in the NFL. Allen is fourth in the league in passing yards (4,000) and has thrown 30 touchdowns to just nine interceptions in leading the Buffalo Bills to 11 wins (already) for the first time since 1999.
Watson would be the quarterback whose team accomplishments don't stack up. The Texans are 4-10 and their 22.5 points per game are in the bottom third of the league. Jackson's Ravens beat Watson's Texans in Week 2.
However, Watson has had a fabulous individual season in which he's thrown for the second-most yards in the league (4,134) and tossed 27 touchdowns to just six interceptions. His 110.6 quarterback rating is tied with Mahomes for the second-best in the NFL.
Jackson ranks 22nd in the NFL in passing yards (2,461) and is tied for 17th with 21 passing touchdowns. However, nobody comes close to matching his impact on the ground, where Jackson ranks 12th in the NFL in rushing yards (828) and has seven touchdowns.
Jackson's overall impact and his importance to the Ravens' offense certainly make an argument for the reigning MVP to be a Pro Bowler, even though his stats aren't as eye-popping as a year ago. Plus, he's played some of his best games recently, after the Pro Bowl voting had already ended.
Jackson has talked time and time again about his only focus being on winning the ultimate prize of the Super Bowl. He got all the single-season individual accomplishments a player could ask for last year.
"I feel like I should have played like that the whole time," Jackson said of his recent hot streak. "We're trying to get in the playoffs right now, so we've just got to keep staying focused on the task at hand."
