ESPN's Mike Greenberg Says Three Quarterbacks Have Better Chance of Winning First Super Bowl Before Lamar Jackson
Moments after being named league MVP for the second time in five seasons, Lamar Jackson acknowledged that he is motivated by proving his critics wrong.
"I need the naysayers to keep going, keep adding fuel to that fire for me to keep being Lamar Jackson," Jackson told our Garrett Downing at NFL Honors in Las Vegas last week.
ESPN's "Get Up" crew might have just added some more fuel. On the show, Mike Greenberg ranked the top five quarterbacks who will be next to win their first Super Bowl.
Despite leading the Ravens to a league-best 13-4 record and within one game of reaching the Super Bowl, Jackson was only No. 4 in Greenberg's rankings. Greenberg felt the need to explain why Jackson was on the list at all.
"Frankly, I'm not sure when he's going to win it if it wasn't this year," Greenberg said. "Everything seemed to be set up perfectly, but that team is too talented, he's too good, and the coaching is too good to leave him off a list like this."
The quarterbacks ranked ahead of Jackson were: the Green Bay Packers' Jordan Love, the San Francisco 49ers' Brock Purdy, and the Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Burrow.
Greenberg's three colleagues — Louis Riddick, Marcus Spears, and Field Yates — all put Burrow at No. 1.
Jackson Is No. 1 in NFL.com's 2023 QB Index
Here's one that Jackson can't use as fuel.
NFL.com’s Nick Shook ranked every quarterback who started at least one game this past season (there were 66 of them), and Jackson took the No. 1 spot.
"Jackson's season wasn't perfect. … But the high points landed in the stratosphere, and the timing with which they occurred couldn't have been more beneficial to his MVP case," Shook wrote.
Jackson, who also was No 1 in the 2019 rankings, was No. 12 in 2022 when he was limited to 12 games due to injury.
J.K. Dobbins, Kevin Zeitler Among Most Underrated Offensive Free Agents
Pro Football Focus’ Gordon McGuinness named one underrated free agent at every offensive position. Running back J.K. Dobbins and guard Kevin Zeitler made the list.
"Were it not for an Achilles injury that ended his 2023 season in Week 1, Dobbins could have been hitting the offseason with a chance to be one of the top-paid running backs in free agency," McGuinness wrote. "That injury likely means a one-year prove-it deal for a player who has averaged 5.6 yards per attempt in his NFL career, is just 25 years old and has just 266 NFL carries over four seasons.
"Zeitler looks set to continue his career and that should interest any team looking to fill a short-term need on the interior offensive line. He had a rough couple of weeks to start the year for the Ravens but impressed more the longer the season went on. He had just one game with a PFF pass-blocking grade below 70.0 after Week 3."
It's possible that the Ravens re-sign Dobbins and/or Zeitler, which General Manager Eric DeCosta acknowledged at the team's end of season press conference.
Zeitler, who was named to his first Pro Bowl this past season, has made it clear that he wants to return to the Ravens, and DeCosta said he and the 12-year veteran have discussed an extension.
To avoid incurring $4.3 million in "dead money" on the salary cap, the Ravens would need to re-sign Zeitler by 4 p.m. this Monday. If he re-signed after that deadline, the Ravens would have to pay the dead money as well as the cost of a new deal.
