Pundits Says the 2024 Ravens Will Be Judged on the Playoffs
This marks the sixth time the Ravens will go to the postseason since Lamar Jackson arrived in 2018. Now the Ravens’ quest is to go additional.
The playoffs have change into the barometer for the top-tier franchises. While many pundits acknowledged the Ravens’ excellence – each by staff and particular person performances – they’re intent in seeing it translate from the common season to the gauntlet forward.
“This staff was by no means going to be judged by what occurs over the grueling 18 weeks of the common season. It was all the time going to be about the playoffs,” The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec wrote. “That’s the harsh actuality after developing quick final 12 months and dropping in both the wild-card or divisional spherical in 4 of the 5 previous seasons. It’s additionally the harsh actuality of getting an MVP quarterback in his prime. You solely get so many probabilities to make a Super Bowl run.”
Zrebiec is not the just one noting how the lots would look upon the Ravens. Though they have been working since late July, the “actual” measurement would are available in January.
“We heard it earlier than this staff was even assembled, when the wounds from the Ravens’ AFC championship loss to the Chiefs have been nonetheless uncooked,” The Baltimore Sun’s Childs Walker wrote. “Nothing they — Harbaugh, Jackson, any of the group’s core figures — might do in the common season would quiet those that imagine the Ravens do not present their greatest in the legacy-defining video games of January.”
The similar goes for The Baltimore Banner’s Kyle Goon.
“If everyone seems to be trustworthy, we have all been ready for what occurs subsequent — to see if the expertise that has received them so many regular-season video games will lastly translate into a return to the Super Bowl stage,” Goon wrote. “It’s the place a staff this proficient belongs, even when the No. 1-seeded Chiefs nonetheless loom in the distance on the different facet of the AFC bracket.”
And, as all the time, that judgment and file can be upon Jackson’s shoulders.
“Fair or not, all his NFL data apart, Jackson’s legacy goes to be tied to his postseason play. He is 2-4 as a postseason starter, together with 1-3 at house,” Pressbox’s Bo Smolka wrote. “Twice, he has misplaced at house as the No. 1 seed. Jackson’s postseason passer ranking of 75.7 pales compared to his profession regular-season mark of 102.0. There have been loads of causes for the postseason losses, however Jackson hasn’t performed significantly effectively. No one must remind him, or anybody else in the group, of that. But there won’t be extra stress on anybody else in the league to lastly ship his staff to the Super Bowl.”
