The Ravens head into their regular-season finale against Pittsburgh at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday with everything wrapped up in terms of postseason positioning.

Baltimore is the number-one seed in the AFC and has earned the coveted bye. This explains why Lamar Jackson will not suit up vs. a Steelers team that is desperately trying to get into the playoffs as a wildcard.

Maybe the Steelers will be in this position again one day, but if they are, they will likely have to battle Baltimore for the top spot in the AFC North. The Ravens run the North this season, and it’s their third division title since 2018, Jackson’s rookie year.

Jackson won NFL MVP in 2019 and has been one of the game’s premier players since he made his professional debut in 2018.

Where would the Ravens be without Jackson? Actually, we saw that the past two seasons when he missed a combined 10 games down the stretch, and Baltimore went from records of 8-3 and 7-3 to 8-9 and 10-7, respectively.

The Ravens were well on their way to a great season in 2021 before totally collapsing over the final six weeks and missing the postseason. Baltimore was again poised to make a Lombardi run in 2022 but finished 3-4 over the last seven games and then lost in the wildcard round.

Needless to say, the Ravens missed their best player. Of course, they did. Why wouldn’t they have? Jackson is a franchise quarterback, and what team is ever the same without its franchise passer?

Maybe because Jackson has always had the reputation of being a run-first quarterback, but if you look at his career stats, that’s just not the case. Jackson’s best rushing year was in 2019 when he gained 1,206 yards and scored seven touchdowns. I suppose those stats could warrant the label of “running back,” which is something fans of opposing teams–namely, those who cheer for the other squads in the AFC North–love to place on Jackson. It’s too bad Jackson also passed for 3,127 yards and threw 36 touchdowns to just six interceptions.

A year like that will get you an MVP vote or most of them.

For his career, Jackson has rushed for 5,258 yards and scored 29 touchdowns in 86 games. Those would be respectable numbers for an actual running back. The fact that Jackson has also completed 64.5 percent of his passes for 15,887 yards, 125 touchdowns and just 45 interceptions shows you he’s way more than just a running back at the quarterback spot.

Jackson has a career passer rating of 98, btw.

This man is a quarterback first and foremost.

Jackson was well on his way to either nearing or surpassing 4,000 yards through the air the past two seasons before injuries derailed him. As for 2023? Jackson has passed for 3,678 yards and has thrown 24 touchdowns to just seven interceptions in 16 games.

Jackson is a complete quarterback and seems to be getting better and better at standing in the pocket and making throws downfield. Yes, Jackson, who has rushed for 821 yards through 16 games, still likes to run a lot; his 148 carries in 2023 are the second-most of his career. But it’s clear that he is now a pass-first quarterback.

He’s always been that, actually, but people just want to see and believe what they want to see and believe.

The Ravens know how valuable Jackson is to their championship aspirations. If they didn’t, they may have just traded him last offseason amid an ongoing contract squabble between the two sides. Instead, Baltimore decided to sign its valuable asset to a five-year, $260 million contract with $185 million of it fully guaranteed.

That’s the kind of money you give to a franchise quarterback in today’s NFL, and Jackson is among the best of them.

The Ravens are a complete team. They have the fourth-ranked offense–including the number-one rushing attack in the NFL. They also have the fourth-best defense.

However, Baltimore would be a shell of its former self without Jackson. The Ravens will head into the postseason with a healthy Jackson this time, and the road to the Super Bowl will have to go through M&T Bank Stadium.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ravens do make it to the Promised Land this season. They have everything, but especially a franchise quarterback in Lamar Jackson.

The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and the Ravens may have the best one this season.