Despite spending part of the summer visiting the New York City offices of TikTok, Lamar Jackson says he's been trying to stay off social media. But there was one thing that recently made the rounds he couldn't escape: his own name, tagged again and again, next to a number he hadn't gone looking for. Lamar Jackson — two-time MVP, entering his ninth training camp Wednesday under a new head coach and a new offensive coordinator — had been ranked 69th on the NFL's player-voted Top 100 list.
"No, to be honest I really have not been paying attention to anything on social media," Jackson said, when asked about the two-year, roughly $500 million extension Patrick Mahomes had just signed with the Chiefs — the richest deal in NFL history. "Except for this No. 69 thing, the ratings, or whatever it is. I have seen that. People were tagging me in it, so that is why I was able to see it, but I really do not follow anything like that."
Asked directly after the Ravens' first full training camp practice on Wednesday about what he made of the ranking: "It is what it is. I play football. I do not care about rankings."
The 29-year-old Jackson is spending more of his time working with the Ravens first-year head coach Jesse Minter and new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle — his fourth playcaller of his career. If things go the way they all want, Jackson's ranking will be much higher this time next year.
The Résumé Behind the Snub
The ranking sits oddly next to Jackson's record. He's a two-time MVP (2019, 2023), a three-time First-Team All-Pro, and a four-time Pro Bowler who nearly won a third MVP in 2024, finishing behind Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. That season was his healthiest recent year and produced career highs: a 66.7% completion rate, 4,172 passing yards, 41 touchdowns against four interceptions, and 915 rushing yards with four more scores on the ground.
Two things likely explain the drop-off in the voting. Jackson dealt with a back injury for stretches of 2025, the Ravens missed the playoffs, and he finished with a modest-by-his-standards line of 2,549 yards, 21 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. And his playoff record still trails his individual honors: 3-5 for his career, with a single trip to the AFC Championship Game — a loss to the Chiefs at home after the 2023 season — as the deepest the Ravens have gone with him at quarterback.
A Defensive Mind in His Corner
What will this year look like?
Well, there's at least one new wrinkle: Minter is a defensive coach who spent years game-planning against Jackson from the other sideline, or watching from afar.
Jackson said they've already started using that to their advantage. "We talked about it," Jackson said. "He pulled me to the side yesterday, and he was talking about just coming in and meeting with him so I can see defenses the way he calls it — other defenses, too, not just his." Asked if those meetings would continue, the QB said, "Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that it's a good idea for me to meet with a defensive-minded coach."
Minter's read on Jackson: "He's incredible. Again, the best player in the league. When he's out there and he's obviously really engaged like he is, he makes everybody on the field better." He added that learning a new offense can help rather than hurt: "I do think sometimes when you're trying to learn new things, it really energizes you because you know that there's a requirement to get where you want to get between now and the game."
The Urgency Question
Minter and safety Kyle Hamilton were both asked some version of the same question Wednesday: does the urgency change for a player entering Year 9 without a Super Bowl? Minter, who hasn't been around Jackson long other than early in his career when Minter was a Ravens defensive assistant, kept his answer general: "He is really, really hungry. He has a lot of intent right now of what he's trying to get done... I would say that he has a real narrow focus on what we're trying to accomplish."
Jackson's answer was direct. "Absolutely, it does. Each and every year I am getting older and not younger, so of course it increases — but it starts now. Like I said on The Lounge [the Ravens in-house podcast], it starts now in training camp."
Hamilton, who has practiced against Jackson for years, cracked a joke about Jackson's next birthday (his 30th in January) but said he looks sharper, not older. "I feel like he might have gotten faster somehow," Hamilton said on Wednesday. "I feel like he ran today really fast."
Doyle's offense also has Jackson working under center more than he has in past years, and Hamilton said that shift already looks natural. "Just play fakes, running out of every handoff like he has the ball," the safety said. "It is just little stuff like that that he has been very intentional about."
About That Contract
There's a contract angle too. Jackson signed a five-year, $260 million extension in 2023 with $185 million guaranteed, a full no-trade clause, and language blocking the franchise tag after 2027.
At an offseason press conference, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said he wanted to a get new deal done in the spring and avoid a complicated negotiation like Jackson had last time around, but Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said in March the Ravens "kind of ran out of time" in those talks.
Instead, the Ravens simply restructured Jackson's current deal to avoid a perilous salary cap situation, freeing up roughly $40 million in 2026 cap space, but Jackson's cap number is still set to jump past $80 million in 2027 — the kind of number that usually forces another negotiation. Jackson wasn't interested in getting into any of that Wednesday.
Jackson closed the door on further contract questions. "I will keep it the same way I have been keeping it. It's private between me and [Eric DeCosta]."