By Robert Streit
Thursday Night Football saw the embrace of Lamar Jackson hit an all-time high when the Baltimore Ravens quarterback, playing in his first full season, broke the single-season rushing yards record for quarterbacks previously set by Michael Vick, who rushed for 1,039 during the 2006 season.
Jackson, who entered the week 15 matchup with 1,017 yards on the ground, wasted no time, achieving the feat in the opening drive of the Ravens 42-21 rout of the New York Jets at home, faking a handoff to running back Mark Ingram in a 5-yard scramble.
“It’s pretty cool, Jackson said after the game. “Michael Vick was my favorite player growing up. It’s amazing and I’m going to cherish this forever and keep it going. Records are made to be broken, like he said, and it’s an honor for me to do it.” Vick later congratulated Jackson on his record-setting night and said it was one of many milestones that he would accomplish in his career.
In the 13 years since Vick’s historic season, we’ve seen the prevalence of mobile quarterbacks with a larger propensity than in, say, the past twenty years, but yet, no one has come close to Vick’s record. Before the start of the 2019 season, the most rushing yards by a quarterback since the start of 2007 came in 2014 when Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson ran for 849 yards.
Given his frequent execution of quarterback-run-based plays, and to the great success he has done so with, the fact that Jackson broke Vick’s record in just the Ravens 14th game, I’m sure this is something he will fondly look back on, but right now he has other things to think about.
With two games left prior to the start of the playoffs, Lamar’s focus surely is to help the Ravens garner the top seed in the AFC in hopes of securing home-field advantage, ensuring the path Super LIV has to go through the beltway. Were this to happen, the Ravens, who are 6-1 at home this season, should favor their chances of being able to make a deep run at the Lombardi Trophy.
