Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson will be just three days past his 24th birthday when the weight of the football world piggybacks him into Sunday's wild-card playoff game at Tennessee.
A unanimous MVP selection a year ago, Jackson is one of the greatest and most unusual young quarterbacks the NFL has ever seen. But he plays at a time when the bar has never sat higher for quarterbacks his age.
And, unfortunately, if he doesn't keep pace Sunday and beat the team that upset him as a No. 1 seed a year ago, all the amazing things he's done before turning 24 will be dismissed. The 30-7 record, the 68-18 touchdown-to-interception differential and the historic back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons will be overshadowed by a dismal postseason stat that places him alongside Andy Dalton as the only quarterbacks to start their careers by losing playoff openers in three straight seasons.
No pressure, young fella.
No problem, says coach John Harbaugh, whose fifth-seeded Ravens are the quintessential "team nobody wants to face in the postseason." And that includes the No. 4 Titans, who used Derrick Henry and an opportunistic defense to steamroll the 14-2 Ravens in last year's divisional round.
"Lamar is a guy that can look tough situations squarely in the eye and try to figure out a way to overcome them," Harbaugh said. "He never gets too down about anything," including a 10-day isolation for testing positive for COVID-19 during the season.
Jackson, who has more turnovers (five) than touchdowns (three) in two playoff games, will need to figure out how to overcome his hiccups, especially going forward in the AFC.
The first 14-team NFL playoff field features six quarterbacks under the age of 27. Four of them – Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield – are in the AFC.
