First Things First - HIGHLIGHT: What's on the line for Lamar Jackson this year?

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Watch clips on YouTube! Subscribe to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIRST THINGS FIRST YOUTUBE CHANNEL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Derrick Henry praises his teammate Lamar Jackson as "the best player in the league." Does Lamar need to take the Ravens on a Super Bowl run this year? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lamar Jackson was first team all pro but finished second to Josh Allen and MVP voting and finished second to him in the AFC divisional round. Not bad having you put it like that. But that won't stop Derek Henry from singing Lamar's praises. Take a listen to King Henry. It's the best player in the league and I know you use the word easy. I kind of say the same thing is like watching the video game. You know, not being his teammate, you just see why he's so great by the way he works, the work the work he put in. and you know how much he hold his teammates accountable man and I kind of seen it first hand

that Cincinnati game you know the game would just never shootout yeah we'll be up we'll be down by two touchdowns he'll bring us right back so just a hell of a player man and you know he's a two-time MVP for a reason yep and so there's Lamar the regular season numbers are in line with the greatest players in league history the playoff numbers obviously not quite that brew what's on the line for Now, you never lived in Baltimore, right? But yet my wife went to her residency in Baltimore. Yes, John Hopkins. Yes, John Hopkins.

Yeah, her medical residence. So I was there all the time. My mom went to Johns Hopkins. So yeah, you know what? Maybe I could have that team too. My wife's from Baltimore. Baltimore, you're right. You went on your first date in Baltimore.

We met with the first season, the Ravens were ever in existence. You've been mean to the Ravens. I mean, it's really unbelievable. I have not been. All our connections to Baltimore. Um, Brew, what's on the line for your quarterback this season? The same thing that's on the line for him every year going forward that he doesn't win the Super Bowl. First, reach it.

Yeah. But ultimately, he's got to win it. And that is the level of his legacy. The level of his legacy. That's just for emphasis. Brew thought that was a bar. There was definitely a bar. Level of his legacy.

Because his legacy, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. He's got the two MVP's, right? he's going to be viewed as like an somewhat all-time great quarterback. Iconic. Right? Iconic for sure. Change the game to a degree. But if he wins a Super Bowl, I mean, honestly, with the way he's, like, he's getting better every year.

With what he did last year, like, I think clearly top 10 all time is on the board, maybe top five. I mean, the way he's like, last year, you can't really have a better season than he's. had, but he has to cap it off with the playoffs. You can't be the only two-time or multiple MVP winner without a Super Bowl and you can't play, I don't know about your

worst games, but you can't drop off this much in the playoffs. Even last year when he played well second half he was great but he hadn't turned the ball over all year and then he has two in the big playoff game. So that like, this is a compliment

to him though. I mean, LeBron was here Michael Jordan was here. Peyton Manning was here. You know, the all-time greats, this is what we expect. Like, you have to cap it off with the championship. And so it's a compliment, but he's also got to get it done. Yeah, the level of his legacy. You like that.

That really should have been a bar. Yeah. Yeah, is it Dan Marino or is it, does he win a Super Bowl? And suddenly now we're talking about him versus Mahomes and who, who can win more rings. And every year we're having the same conversation and we're measuring his progress in terms of, okay, he beat Pittsburgh.

You know, he finally got over the Pittsburgh comp. And then he finally, you know, in this last playoff run, it was really the tight end that had the drop at the end. And he could have easily won that game. But unfortunately, he hasn't. And so when you're a two-time MVP and really could have been a three-time MVP.

A lot of people thought he was going to be. And you can't, you can't seem. to get over that hump you're just it's it's a discussion and a interesting topic every year until you make it something more meaning and listen we have seen like Peyton Manning is the hope Peyton man because Peyton you know Peyton and by the way and I've said this for I'll say it again Peyton Manning yeah and Peyton that is you know he had to deal with the Patriots which is right the wall but so but I he's got to do with the Chiefs

I want to get to that because he doesn't really have to deal with the Chiefs. He's lost the Chiefs once in the playoffs. They haven't been good enough in the playoffs to get the privilege of playing the Chiefs. Like I was on Mina Kimes, my friend, but hated rival, her podcast this weekend, and we got in an impromptu argument about the Ravens. And one of the things she said is Aaron Shats, you know, who used to be with football outsiders, and created DVOA, which is kind of a catch-all team ranking. the two best teams of, I think, the last, since DVOA has existed the last 25 years, over a five-year stretch to not make a Super Bowl,

are the last five years Buffalo Bills in first place and the last five years Baltimore Ravens in second place. And she made the point. She's like, so that's really, you know, a compliment to Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reed. And I said, well, it is for Buffalo, but it's not for Baltimore. The chiefs have beaten Baltimore in the playoffs once.

They are not the 90s nicks to Michael Jordan. You know what I mean? Where it's just like every year we have a hard ceiling. And the reason I said the hope is Peyton Manning is because Peyton Manning did eventually get over the hump by winning. But Peyton Manning always struggled in the playoffs. Even when they won, that playoff run that they won the Super Bowl, Josh fact check me on this because it's going to sound wrong. But I think in the playoff run, he had four touchdowns and seven picks when they won the Super Bowl.

His first Super Bowl within. And then with Denver, they were a great defense. But he was just in the mix enough that, you know, one of the years, your defense is going to come up big. You're going to make a few big plays. But I am, I have been labeled maybe fairly, I think unfairly, a Ravens or Lamar hater for just being right. and thus far up to this point, like where is the line between the, the, the, the, the, hater and the person whose skepticism was proven correct because he has been over the, since he's come into the league, you can argue in the regular season, he's been better than

Patrick. You know what I mean? Like, they have the same number of MVP's, but Patrick won his first one, when Lamar, you was not yet. Well, Lamar was in the league, but he wasn't. Right. Patrick's had Andy. Patrick's had Travis.

You can argue in the regular season, he's been quarterback one. But when you then say in that same time frame in the playoffs, he hasn't been quarterback 10. It is, to me, now too big of a sample to call it coincidental. So that, what I wanted to ask you before we move on is, I agree with you entirely that he is truly S-Bob, at least get there or whatever it is. all agree if they do it and he pulls it off, even if he doesn't play great, if it's like the Peyton thing, he's minted forever and you start you talking about like Lamar versus Drew

Breeze, Lamar versus, you know what I mean, those types of conversations. The flip side is, what if it's deja vu for the third straight year? What if it's another? He could be MVP. The Ravens have the best team. All of this. And then once again, you're not even that close. Then how do we talk about Lamar moving forward? That's my question. It's going to haunt him until he wins a Super Bowl. And look, I have not agreed with your James Harden take. I used to say, and I think rightly, that Lamar struggled in the playoffs because he was a running quarterback.

Wasn't a great passer. And teams could focus on that in the playoffs. Now he is a great passer in the regular season. And so he's, but like coach said, he has gotten over some. Humps. He got over the Steelers hump. He played well. He has played better in the playoffs. So but he's got it's going to

it is going to taint the regular season praise that he gets to some degree until he wins the Super Bowl. Yeah. And his own comments where he has said and you appreciate the honesty but where like he gets antsy was the word he used.

And when he shouldn't say. And when he offered up, man I still remember losses from Pop Warner. Like those are usually parts of a personality that might lead to wanting something so bad that you can be your own worst enemy in the biggest spots. And so I'm just curious to see it because everybody thinks the Ravens roster is stacked. You know what I mean? Everybody. And so they should be right there once again.