One Super Bowl would change the argument around Lamar Jackson, and Femi Ayanbadejo said it would do more than add a ring. It would close the book on the claim that the Ravens quarterback’s style cannot win when the games matter most.
The discussion is landing now because Baltimore is on the eve of its first preseason game, which has put Jackson back under the microscope before 2025 even begins. Ayanbadejo, writing in Baltimore Beatdown’s special series on Jackson, framed the question bluntly: where does Jackson’s legacy go from here? His answer was equally direct. One ring would settle one question permanently.
The case for that view starts with the numbers already attached to Jackson’s name. Dan Orlovsky ranked NFL starting quarterbacks across seven traits — arm strength, ball placement, mechanics, decision-making, pocket presence, second-reaction ability and rushing ability — and Jackson was the only quarterback to land in the top 10 in all seven. He was no higher than sixth in any category except rushing, where he led all quarterbacks. That is the kind of all-around profile usually treated as proof of elite command, not as evidence that a player still needs to convince people he can win in January.
That gap is the friction point. Jackson, 29 years old, has already won a unanimous MVP while leading the most productive rushing offense in NFL history, then added another MVP after taking on more responsibility in a wider passing system. By any ordinary measure, that should be enough to settle the football question. Yet the postseason conversation keeps circling back to the same old doubt, as if a quarterback can rank near the top in every trait and still be asked to prove his game belongs on the biggest stage.
That is why the comparison that hangs over Jackson is not about style alone. Greg Cote argued that without a ring, Jackson’s career could be remembered alongside Dan Marino’s, and Marino’s place in history is already secure as a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. The point is not that Jackson has failed to match Marino. It is that, without a Super Bowl, even a career built on rare production can be pulled into a familiar debate about what was missing.
This series has already spent time on the way narratives stick to Jackson, from claims about contracts and character to the assumptions built around his off-field decisions. That is what makes the current moment matter: the debate is no longer about whether Jackson is gifted enough. It is about whether one championship would finally force the football world to talk about him differently. Ayanbadejo made his position clear. He believes that championship is coming, and if it does, the legacy conversation around Jackson will change with it.
For now, the next step is simple. Baltimore plays its first preseason game, and Jackson enters 2025 still carrying the same burden and the same opening. The rankings say he is already one of the most complete quarterbacks in the NFL. The only unresolved question is whether the season that follows will give him the one Super Bowl that would make the argument stop.
