Lamar Jackson has only played 18 games in his NFL career, but he's already one of the best running quarterbacks in NFL history.

Jackson ran for 95 yards as the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night.

He has 1,571 career rushing yards, moving him into 50th place all-time in quarterback rushing yards.

At his current rushing pace, Jackson could be as high as 31st on the all-time list by the end of this regular season.

Michael Vick is No. 1 all-time with 6,000+ yards.

The New England Patriots were tied to Lamar Jackson during the 2018 draft a few months after they had traded Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers. New England no longer had an heir apparent for whenever Tom Brady would decide to retire. 

The Patriots had a pair of late first round picks, but they instead selected Isaiah Wynn and Sony Michel, which left the Baltimore Ravens trading back into the first round at No. 32 to select Jackson. 

"Now, you've got to know this: the Patriots spent a lot of time on Lamar Jackson," said Lombardi on the GM Shuffle Podcast. "They spent a ton of time. When Baltimore traded from 22 to 25 with New England sitting at 23, they had to have known New England was all over Lamar. They had sent Josh McDaniels there. They spent time with him. There was a lot of talk... I was talking about it that I thought they would draft him. I really did.

"At the end of the day, I think they felt like they had to change completely and the transition from Tom to Lamar probably would have been too dramatic in one year, and so I think they passed. I think they had genuine, genuine interest in the kid.

"I know this because my son coached at Louisville."

Lamar Jackson is the leading candidate to be named the NFL's Most Valuable Player and he also leads the league in Pro Bowl voting.

The Baltimore Ravens quarterback leads all players in fan voting with 146,171 votes.

The voting extends through Dec. 12

Patrick Mahomes is in second with 116,325 votes, while Russell Wilson (115,370) sits third.

Eric Weddle spent three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, but won't divulge secrets to the Los Angeles Rams when the two teams square off on Monday night.

"I could tell them a lot of stuff, but that's just not who I am," said Weddle, who signed a two-year, $10.5 million contract with the Rams after the Ravens released him. "So we're going to play it on the field, and the best team is going to win."

Sean McVay said Wednesday that he had not spoken to Weddle about the nuances of the Ravens' defense.

"In terms of some of the intricacies, I think he's got a lot of loyalty to those guys even if he's not there anymore," McVay said.

Marty Mornhingweg has denied responding to the Baltimore Ravens' selection of Lamar Jackson by asking "When are we moving him to wide receiver?"

Michael Lombardi relayed the story on a recent episode of his podcast.

Mornhinweg is no longer employed by the Ravens with Greg Roman guiding Jackson to a potential MVP season.

“That didn’t happen,” Mornhinweg said. “Never said that. My thoughts before the draft, and even more when we started working with Lamar, was that this young man was going to be a special quarterback. Very early we saw that along with all of his throwing and escape abilities, he reads the field as well as any young quarterback I ever worked with.”

John Harbaugh backed Mornhinweg’s version of events.

“Marty was excited from the beginning to coach Lamar and was instrumental in helping him progress through his rookie season,” Harbaugh said.

For the first time this season, Lamar Jackson is the favorite to be named the NFL's Most Valuable Player.

He is 7-5 at Caesars Sportsbook in Las Vegas, after entering the season at 50-1 odds.

Mark Ingram II introduced Jackson before the quarterback spoke to the media following Sunday's win over the Houston Texans.

"Now I would just like to introduce y'all to the man, the myth, the legend, the MVP front-runner ... if anybody else got something different to say about that, then come see me," the running back said.

Since Oct. 20, Jackson been the most popular pick by bettors at Caesars Sportsbook. Over the last two weeks, 54% of the money bet on DraftKings' MVP odds has been on Jackson.

Russell Wilson is the second-favorite at 2-1 at Caesars Sportsbook, followed by Aaron Rodgers (9-1) and Patrick Mahomes (10-1).

The Baltimore Ravens had a strategy of seeking quantity at the 2018 NFL Draft in which they eventually selected Lamar Jackson 32nd overall.

Ozzie Newsome and Eric DeCosta both loved Jackson and the Ravens were starting to fall out of love with Joe Flacco.

“We wanted quantity that day,” said DeCosta after Sunday's game. “With the way the draft fell that year, we saw a way to really improve our offense. We were hoping the phone was gonna ring, starting at 16.”

Baltimore traded down from 16 to the Buffalo Bills for 22 and 65.

“We get to 22, and all of the players we liked are still there,” DeCosta said. “So we traded again.”

Baltimore used 22 and moved it to Tennessee for 25 and 125.

The Ravens, however, didn't use 25 on Jackson but instead on Hayden Hurst.

“You kinda have to use a strategy,” DeCosta said. “We felt like there was a pretty good chance that Lamar might be there later in the first round, early part of the second round. We were willing, if we could, to trade back, trade back, accumulate capital and then possibly either try to trade back again or in a second round, make a play and get Lamar at that point. But, you know, it was a risk.”

“Were you nervous about losing him?” I asked.

“We were. We were. But I think you’ve got to stay as clinical in the moment as you can, and really just go with all your best information and the plan. So yeah, you’re always nervous. You accept that you’ll lose some players working this way. But I think we try to stay as measured as possible and not get caught up in the moment.”

The Ravens called the Philadelphia Eagles about 32 as they were known to want to move down, but it would cost them Baltimore's second round pick in 2019.

“We didn’t share what we were going to try and do with anybody,” said DeCosta. “Drafts are strange like that. It’s just Ozzie and me at the end of the table, the only ones who really know. When you’re trying to make a decision as important as that, you try and keep it as quiet as you can. Because it’s not that you don’t want to share it with people, but the downside—which would be losing the player—is much greater than the upside of sharing the information with somebody that you care about.

“We didn’t even interview Lamar at the combine because we didn’t want to be associated with him. We didn’t want rumors about us and him to start. They didn’t. We were proud of that. So we pick him, and to hear him talk, and to hear his emotion and to see Lamar on TV with Deion Sanders, so happy, and to see his conviction, and to see his competitiveness. That’s a powerful thing. So, after the pick was announced, we hadn’t even had the chance to tell the scouts and coaches.

“And I think it’s probably the first time in my 24 years that you could hear cheering outside the draft room. You could hear the coaches and you could hear the scouts. That was a powerful moment for us.”

The 2019 NFL MVP chase appears to be a two-horse race between Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson with each of their odds improving in Week 10.

Last week, SportsBetting.ag had Wilson as the MVP favorite with 2/1, or +200, odds. Wilson started the season with 16/1 odds.

Jackson had 7/2, or +350, odds before his perfect-rating game Sunday, and his odds have improved as well. Jackson started the year with 30/1 odds.

MVP Odds
Russell Wilson +175
Lamar Jackson +250
Deshaun Watson +600
Aaron Rodgers +900
Christian McCaffrey +900
Patrick Mahomes +1400
Tom Brady +2000
Drew Brees +2500
Jimmy Garoppolo +2500
Dak Prescott +3300
Kirk Cousins +3300

Lamar Jackson posted a perfect passer rating against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, becoming just the second player in NFL history to produce a perfect rating in multiple games in a single season.

Ben Roethlisberger also did so with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007.

"I'm a quarterback at the end of the day," Jackson said. "I want to prove that each and every day I go out and practice. I treat it like it's a game. If I miss a pass at practice, I'm ticked off."

Jackson had a perfect rating in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins. The Baltimore Ravens quarterback also had the longest touchdown run of his career in Sunday's 49-13 win over the Bengals.