Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes respect each other, but they haven’t developed a friendship.
They are great quarterbacks, and their teams are AFC rivals. They will see each other in Thursday night’s season opener in Kansas City, knowing they may see each other again in the playoffs.
For Jackson, his 1-4 career record against the Chiefs led by Mahomes makes them the opponent that has given him the most trouble. Last year’s 17-10 loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game was heartbreaking for the Ravens, who were denied a trip to the Super Bowl while the Chiefs marched to their second straight Lombardi Trophy.
While millions of fans will be watching and talking about Jackson and Mahomes on Thursday night, the two stars of the show don’t call or text each other. Jackson has never focused on bonding with the NFL’s quarterback fraternity. He is consumed with leading the Ravens to a Super Bowl championship, the way Mahomes has done three times with the Chiefs.
“I don’t have a relationship with him, I don’t think I have a relationship with any quarterback in the league,” Jackson said.
“I don’t take anything from him, I just play my game. But he’s a great quarterback, I’m going to say that. He’s a great quarterback, he has the accolades to prove it. He makes things happen on the field that make his team successful.”
While Mahomes has enjoyed the upper hand, his admiration for Jackson was clear when he met with reporters following the Chiefs’ practice on Sunday. Success hasn’t made Mahomes complacent because he’s obsessed with winning. In Jackson, the youngest player to win two MVP’s, Mahomes admires Jackson’s genuine desire to win.
“More than athletic ability and the ability to throw is the way he competes,” Mahomes said. “He’s a guy that competes every single week. You can tell he cares. You can tell he wants to go out there and win and he wants to put it on his shoulders to take his team to where they can win as many games as possible.
“That’s truly what it takes to be a great quarterback in this league. It’s not always about talent. It’s about, can you go out there and compete every single week and find ways whenever you don’t have your best stuff, your team doesn’t have your best stuff, you find ways to win football games that way.”
Jackson has displayed a sense of urgency throughout training camp, believing the 2024 Ravens have another golden opportunity to win a championship. Beating Kansas City to start the season would make an impressive statement, but Jackson says he’s not viewing the matchup as a chance to get payback versus the Chiefs.
“Any game I play in, I feel like it’s a revenge game,” Jackson said. “I’m not just going to look at this game like a revenge game. Anybody we play, no matter if we’ve beaten them or lost to them in previous years, I just want to win.”
Jackson doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the Ravens can’t prove anything until the postseason. Reaching the playoffs isn’t something Jackson ever takes for granted, despite his sparkling 58-19 regular season record as a starter.
Throughout his career, Jackson has shown an admirable ability to focus on each game as it comes, and while he hopes the 2024 season ends in February, he’s not starting September by looking ahead.
“We have to win regular season games [in order] to get to January,” Jackson said. “We can’t just go into the season and go 5-12, because then we’re not going to be in the playoffs. Playoffs are on our mind, but at the same time, we have to win this game that’s ahead of us.”
Since the NFL schedule was released in May, Jackson has known he would see Mahomes in Week 1. When the two quarterbacks shake hands after Thursday night’s game, Jackson wants his team to have earned the upper hand.
“I’m ready to go. I’ve been going against my guys for weeks,” Jackson said. “It’s time to go against somebody else.”
