Doug Gottlieb Says This NBA Player is Lamar Jackson's Basketball Comparison

Doug Gottlieb: “Lamar Jackson, according to an ESPN survey of more than 50 league executives, coaches, and players is not one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL. WHOOOOOA, THAT’S GONNA HURT SOME PEOPLE! I was seen as a Lamar Jackson ‘hater’ when he came out because I thought Sam Darnold would be better. I was wrong. I would credit the fact that Baltimore has done a great job of putting him into an offense in which he cannot just survive in, but excel in. I think he’s the parallel of James Harden. The way he plays in the regular season is different from what it takes to survive and succeed in the postseason. Look at James Harden and how ineffective he’s been [in the playoffs]. He draws fouls in the regular season that he can’t in the postseason, whereas Lamar Jackson is a guy who is a great runner, and unbelievable in the red zone during the regular season, but postseason he struggles. People keep him in the pocket, people rush the passer differently, people make you make throws into tight windows, and without the exception of one road win, he has struggled. That’s the parallel and I don’t think it’s that far from the truth. One reason league people are down on him – and I’ve talked to a bunch of people about this – is during his rookie contract they have been able to put an incredible team around him, so with that in mind, if you can’t win multiple playoff games when you have an unbelievable, Super Bowl-caliber defense, when he gets the big contract they’re not going to be able to put nearly the same team around him. You can say whatever you want about Pat Mahomes and how he took the ‘home discount’, but they couldn’t keep Tyreek Hill, and they’re not going to be able to keep everybody. Then there’s the ‘does he get worn down from all the hits that he takes in the regular season, or from all the running?’ In order to win you have to be able to make those huge third-down completions, and Lamar just hasn’t as much [as guys ranked in the top 10]. Here is where I would compare Lamar to Russell Westbrook. I think the stats are very much skewed because a lot of the throws are layup throws. Because he so dominates the football much like Russell Westbrook dominates the basketball with usage rating, those stats are very much skewed. You can say he was an MVP but wasn’t Cam Newton the MVP of the league when they went 15-1? Cam was never solidified as a top 10-every-year quarterback." (Full Segment Above)

Listen to Doug Gottlieb explain why he thinks James Harden is the closest NBA comparison to Lamar Jackson, as Gottlieb details why he doesn’t think Lamar was ranked in the top 10 of a recent survey ESPN ran that polled over 50 NFL players, coaches, and executives who were tasked with ranking the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

Here were the rankings: