The Baltimore Ravens are counting down the days until the 2025 season begins with a road game against the Buffalo Bills. The game will be a clash between last year's two league MVP finalists, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and Bills quarterback Josh Allen, with the award ultimately going to Allen in controversial fashion.
Still, Jackson very nearly won his third MVP award and has established himself as one of the best quarterbacks of his generation over the last few years. Despite this, Jackson sometimes has trouble getting respect from previous legends of the game, including Joe Montana, who, during a recent appearance on ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show, recently left him off of his list of the top three quarterbacks he would choose to build a team around in the NFL today.
Instead of Jackson, Montana picked Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, and Justin Herbert, per Pat McAfee on X, formerly Twitter.
Also notably excluded from the list was Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is widely viewed as the best quarterback of the modern era and perhaps of all time, depending on who you ask.
The Lamar Jackson disrespect continues
Perhaps some of the reason why previous legends of the game don't always show Lamar Jackson the same love that they do other quarterbacks is that his play style is different than anything the league has ever seen up to this point.
While there have been mobile quarterbacks in the past, and even an outright running quarterback before in Michael Vick, there has never been someone able to combine that aspect of the game with elite downfield passing as seamlessly as Jackson, who has turned into one of the game's most accurate passers throughout the course of his Hall of Fame career.
The only thing that's now left for Jackson to add to his resume is a Super Bowl championship, which the Baltimore Ravens will look to take home this year after their splashy offseason additions, headlined by Jaire Alexander.
The Bills and Ravens will kick off their respective seasons on Sunday at 8:20 PM ET from Buffalo.
