Clay Travis: “Lamar Jackson is Vince Young, Robert Griffin III, Tim Tebow, and Colin Kaepernick… I have lived through this era of ‘OMG, THIS ATHLETE IS UNBELIEVABLE’. All of them were off the charts hype-wise and ultimately they all failed as NFL QB's because they couldn’t be pocket passing quarterbacks. At some point in time, teams are going to make Lamar Jackson beat them from the pocket and I haven’t seen any evidence that he’s going to be able to do it. The NFL stands for 'NOT FOR LONG'. NFL teams catch up with whatever you’re doing on the offensive side of the ball, but the only thing that can’t be stopped is an accurate pocket-passing quarterback. As long as Jackson isn’t a consistent pocket-passing quarterback, he’s a flash in the pan. People always overreact to athletic quarterbacks and give them too much praise. The last decade has told us that it won’t last, you have to ultimately be able to pass.” (Full Audio at Bottom of Page)
Listen to Clay Travis explain why he thinks NFL MVP front-runner Lamar Jackson is simply the same type of flash in the pan that former dynamic quarterbacks Vince Young, Robert Griffin III, Colin Kaepernick, and Tim Tebow were in their short-lived stints with stardom.
At one point in their career, all four of the aforementioned players were close to the pinnacle of their sport, and celebrated as future superstars in the league for years to come. Ultimately, all four of them were eventually extinguished from the limelight entirely, as Young and Tebow washed out of the league completely, Griffin III had injuries derail his career and confine him to a permanent backup, and Kaepernick lost his starting job to draft bust Blaine Gabbert.
Clay says those four players, all electric dual-threat quarterbacks for a brief amount of time, closely parallel Lamar Jackson, as the Baltimore Ravens quarterback has been arguably the league’s most breathtaking talent through 17 starts.
Check out the audio below as Clay details why Jackson’s success will surely not last, and why his shortcomings as a legitimate pocket passer will ultimately lead to a sad exposure in the same fashion we saw in last year’s postseason when Jackson posted an ugly 9.5 QBR in Baltimore’s 23-17 AFC Wild Card game loss to the Chargers.