The Kansas City Chiefs‘ Patrick Mahomes and the Baltimore Ravens‘ Lamar Jackson are two of the most dynamic players to ever play the position. While they do it in different ways, the two passers are more similar than people might think. Mahomes has as strong of an arm as the NFL has ever seen, but many of his best plays are when he has taken off and run the ball.
Jackson is as dynamic of a runner as we have seen at the quarterback position, but he also has some incredible arm strength.
The two quarterbacks will be in action on Sunday as they square off in the AFC Championship.
Past Matchups Between Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson
Mahomes and Jackson have been two of the best quarterbacks in the league for some time now, but they don’t have much history playing each other. They have played only four times, with Mahomes going 3-1 in these games.
The last time the Ravens and Chiefs played was in Week 2 of 2021, when the Ravens won a thrilling 36-35 game. Mahomes threw for 343 yards and three touchdowns. Jackson threw for 239 yards and one touchdown but also ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns.
Three of the four games have been decided by five points or less, and none of these games have been in the playoffs.
Up-and-Down Year for Mahomes
When you take one glance at Mahomes’ statistics, you wouldn’t think he is having quite the year he normally does. For much of the year, the Chiefs’ offense hasn’t had the explosiveness we are used to seeing, and at many times, it has hurt the team in a big way.
Drops have been a major issue for the team this year. Despite the drops, Mahomes had the highest completion percentage of his career. He completed 67.2% of his passes this year, finishing with 4,183 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
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In the playoffs, the Chiefs have been much better on offense. Mahomes hasn’t thrown an interception, and the team has been able to move the ball. They are doing it with a strong running game led by Isiah Pacheco, who is averaging 93 yards in the wins against Miami and Buffalo.
However, both of those defenses have been decimated by injuries, and the offense will be going up against an elite defense in Baltimore.
Jackson All but Guaranteed His Second NFL MVP
It has been a tough couple of years for Jackson. Injuries have ended the past couple of seasons, while he has had to deal with intense contract negotiations that had him looking like he may be leaving Baltimore last year.
However, all those are in the past, and Jackson has once again shown his name belongs in any conversation with the best quarterbacks in the league. Like Mahomes, he is coming off the most accurate season of his career, and he finished with 3,678 yards, 24 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions.
He showed he is still an explosive runner too, finishing with 821 rushing yards and five touchdowns. In the win against the Houston Texans last week, Jackson simply took over the game. He finished with 252 total yards of offense, finishing with two passing and two rushing touchdowns.
We Could Be in Store for an AFC Championship for the Ages
When these two teams played recently, the games were extremely competitive, with some great endings. Those were all regular season games, with many of them being early in the season. These two great quarterbacks have never met when the stakes are even remotely close to being this high.
The Ravens have been the best team for pretty much all season, with Jackson being the team’s catalyst. While the Chiefs haven’t been quite the team they have been in the past, they are back in the AFC Championship for the sixth consecutive season.
“To be the champ, you have to beat the champ.”
This is a quote we love in sports, and it rings true in this matchup. I would expect both quarterbacks to be on top of their game, and whichever one has the ball last might just be the guy heading to Las Vegas in two weeks.
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