John Harbaugh isn't here for the preseason narrative that the NFL would figure out Lamar Jackson this season.
"If you're looking for your headline here, I think the people who make those statements are kind of whistling in the graveyard just a little bit," Harbaugh said Monday, per ESPN. "It doesn't have any meaning. Anybody who knows X's and O's are rolling their eyes when they hear something like that."
Back in the summer, some unnamed geniuses told ESPN that "this might be the year everybody figures out Lamar Jackson."
Whoever said that looks pretty silly through six games.
Jackson not only broke the record for most QB wins before turning 25 (35 wins, passes Dan Marino), but he's doing it with both his arm and legs this year.
Jackson is averaging a career-high 67.5 completion percentage, and he's on pace to shatter his personal high in passing yards for a season. With 1,686 yards through six games, he's already more than halfway to his career-high (3,127). Jackson is also on pace to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the third straight season and averages 6.1 yards per carry thus far.
Jackson has proven that if teams take away the run, he can dice up a secondary. If, as Sunday's beatdown against the L.A. Chargers proved, the D is better at slowing the pass, Baltimore can churn out yards on the ground.
Harbaugh knows that Jackson is becoming the ultimate weapon.
"I don't think once somebody does something -- some X-and-O idea -- all of a sudden that's the answer," Harbaugh said. "We've kind of been saying that for three years now. There is no answer. You've got to play well. You've got to execute. Whoever executes better and makes plays, really, in the end is going to win. It's less about figuring somebody out."
