Lamar Jackson has long been touted as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. But as the years pass, the less Jackson remains without a solid season, the more that narrative seems to fall flat. This year, Jackson was ranked 69th on the NFL’s Top 100 list, thanks to injuries and a drop in stats. However, he isn’t letting it affect his mindset.

“I was cool with it. I really didn’t care,” Jackson said on The Lounge podcast ahead of Ravens training camp. “I play football. I don’t really care about where people are ranking me. I don’t look for the noise. It finds me.”

Many fans criticized Lamar Jackson’s No. 69 ranking on social media, saying he deserved to be placed much higher. Those in the media are a little disgruntled, too.

“I get worked up sometimes on these lists and then I tell myself, why do you care? It’s like, it’s what we’re doing,” Peter Schrager said on his show. “I cover the NFL, and when I see Lamar Jackson ranked No. 69 in the league, when I think he might be a top five player of his generation, I at least have to say something.”

“Outside of Patrick Mahomes there is no more accomplished quarterback in the entire NFL [than Jackson,]” Ryan Clark said on First Take, when he was still an ESPN employee. “There’s no quarterback who’s asked to do more than Jackson … It’s not just disrespectful, it’s almost stupid

Last year, the quarterback was ranked at an impressive No. 2 (the same spot as the previous year), following a career-high 4,172 passing yards haul in the regular season, along with 41 touchdowns. Jackson took the Ravens to the playoffs that year, but fell to the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round.

But in 2025, Jackson and the Ravens fell to a 6-7 record. Injuries limited the quarterback to just 13 games. Baltimore finished with 3,278 passing yards, ranking 28th in the league. Last season, the Ravens recorded a total of 4,189 passing yards, the eighth highest in the league. A lot of things went wrong between then and the 2025 season.

But new Ravens head coach Jesse Minter also strongly disagreed with the ranking.

“Look, there may not even be one other player in the league better than Lamar, let alone 68 players in the league better than Lamar,” Minter said on The Lounge podcast.

“When you have one year where he dealt with a little bit of injury and the team [missed the playoffs], certain players, they hold onto that and certain players, they give them the benefit of the doubt. This guy is a multi-MVP winner, has transcended the quarterback position. He knows how I feel about him.”

Hopefully, Jackson will be able to win over the skeptics this season. The Ravens also have a new offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle, and Jackson said he enjoyed learning the new offensive system during spring practices.

With a fresh start, improved health, and a new scheme, all eyes will be on Jackson to see if he can bounce back and remind everyone why he is one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks.