Lamar Jackson received 49 of 50 first-place votes for the Associated Press NFL MVP award, becoming the youngest quarterback to win the league MVP twice (27 years, 0 days). While Jackson won his second MVP award by a landslide, the Baltimore Ravens quarterback didn’t have an MVP season like a typical quarterback who wins the league’s top honor. 

Jackson finished the season completing 67.2% of his passes for 3,678 yards with 24 touchdowns and just seven interceptions for a 102.7 passer rating.

If the passing numbers seem low for an MVP in today’s NFL, it’s because they are.

Jackson is the first player in league history to win MVP despite not finishing in the top 10 statistically in passing yards and passing touchdowns.

The Ravens quarterback finished 15th in passing yards and tied for 11th in passing touchdowns.

The Commanders’ Sam Howell (3,946) and the Saints’ Derek Carr (3,878) ended up with more passing yards than Jackson. Carr and  the Broncos’ Russell Wilson (26) had more passing touchdowns than Jackson.

How did Jackson win MVP? The rushing stats help tell the whole story with Jackson, as he also had 821 rushing yards and five touchdowns — leading the league with 5.5 yards per carry.

Jackson finished with 3,000-plus passing yards and 800-plus rushing yards for the second time in his career, the only player in NFL history to reach those numbers in a season twice.

The Ravens offense ranked No. 4 in scoring (28.4 points per game) and No. 6 in total yards per game (370.4), averaging a NFL-high 156.5 rushing yards per game.

Jackson was the orchestrator of that offense, as the Ravens went a league-best 13-3 in his starts.

The Ravens were 19th in points per game and 16th in yards per game the year prior.

They were 17th in points per possession and 14th in yards per possession, improving to fifth in points per possession and 11th in yards per possession in 2023.

Jackson was one of four quarterbacks since the 1970 merger with multiple seasons posting at least 25 passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns in a career, joining Josh Allen (four), Deshaun Watson (two) and Steve Young (two).

Jackson also recorded his third career 800-yard rushing season in 2023, breaking a tie with Michael Vick (two) for the most-such seasons by a quarterback in NFL history.

He is the only quarterback since the 1970 merger to reach 700 rushing yards in five consecutive seasons (2019-23) and is the only quarterback since the 1970 merger to reach 600 rushing yards in each of the first six years of a career (2018-23). No other quarterback in NFL history has more than four-such seasons in a career.

In a year where the MVP odds seemingly changed hands every single week, Jackson was the most consistent quarterback all season.

The Ravens having 10 wins against teams against winning records — an NFL record —  helped as well.