Ravens Rookie Class Praise Led By Isaiah Likely-Darren Waller Comparison

For the second-straight year, ESPN‘s NFL experts ranked quarterbacks not by the totality of their work, but for their individual traits – 12 to be exact.

In the exercise, many of their pundits and a few from Football Outsiders made top-[add]10 lists on valuable traits for quarterbacks. Jackson was left off half the top-[add]10 lists, on the following traits: arm strength, accuracy, touch, mechanics, field vision and decision-making, with the last being called a snub from Jackson by Football Outsider’s Aaron Schatz and Klassen.

“The back half of the 2021 season was a rough one for Lamar Jackson, but that shouldn’t erase the previous two and a half seasons of play,” Shatz & Klassen wrote. “When he is rolling, Jackson is an instinctive quick-game processor and has a great feel for what he can and cannot get away with over the middle of the field. Moreover, Jackson has incredible feel for when it’s time to give up on a play and leave the pocket while also not doing so too soon. That should qualify as decision-making just the same as anything else.”

Of the other half, Jackson topped the list twice, for scrambling and designed-run ability.

“Defenses can tolerate when Lamar Jackson gains chunk yardage on designed runs. Sometimes their scheme just beats your scheme,” ESPN’s Field Yates wrote. “But it’s his scrambling — when a defense either generates pressure or holds up well enough in coverage that Jackson has no choice but to break free — that is downright demoralizing. And it rarely ends well for a defense, while often leading to a Ravens highlight play.”

“Lamar Jackson is a runaway (pun intended) winner of this category, and the more salient conversation might just be whether he’s the best runner we’ve ever seen at quarterback,” Yates wrote. “His ankle-breaking open-field moves and rare speed are incredible, and he’s a threat every single year to sail past 1,000 rushing yards. Since being drafted…