Lamar Jackson’s playoff track record has been a point of frustration for many Baltimore Ravens fans.
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In five postseason appearances as a starter, Jackson has struggled to translate his regular-season dominance onto the playoff stage. He’s yet to win multiple playoff games in the same year, tallying 10 turnovers across eight postseason contests and managing just six total touchdowns in those games.
But despite the postseason stumbles, few players in NFL history have been as electrifying as Jackson during the regular season. The two-time NFL MVP has redefined what it means to be a dual-threat quarterback, consistently putting up numbers that quarterbacks simply aren’t supposed to reach.
In fact, Jackson’s ground production doesn’t just stack up well among quarterbacks, it rivals, and in some cases surpasses, the league’s top running backs. This point was hammered home when fans recently dug into Jackson’s rushing stats and compared them to those of Saquon Barkley.
Barkley, who won a Super Bowl in his first year with the Eagles after a productive stint with the Giants, has been widely regarded as one of the NFL’s most explosive backs since entering the league in 2018.
And the numbers back it up as well. The Madden 26 cover star has rushed for 7,216 yards on 1,546 career carries, averaging 4.7 yards per attempt with 48 touchdowns across 90 games.
His résumé also includes a jaw-dropping 2,005-yard season in 2024 with the Eagles, where he averaged 5.8 yards per carry and scored 13 touchdowns while powering one of the most dominant rushing attacks in football.
Now here’s where it gets surreal because Lamar Jackson’s career rushing numbers aren’t far behind.
Through 103 games, the Ravens QB has piled up 6,173 rushing yards on 1,014 carries, averaging 6.1 yards per attempt with 33 touchdowns. And as one can make out, these numbers are not just close to Barkley, they are firmly in elite running back territory.
Jackson also owns the longest run between the two at 79 yards, compared to Barkley’s best at 78. And when it comes to ]Jackson’s career rushing average of 6.1 yards per carry, it is even higher than that of Barkley.
Wild: Lamar Jackson is only 1,043 yards behind Saquon Barkley with 532 fewer carries.
Jackson’s greatness is underappreciated.
(h/t @ChrisCooper_NFL) pic.twitter.com/b6SOeK8tCh
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) July 6, 2025
Unsurprisingly, fans were stunned to see these numbers because it wasn’t just the proximity of the yardage totals; it was the sheer fact that Jackson, a quarterback, is right there alongside Barkley in every key rushing metric.
“That’s insane,” hence wrote a fan, summing up the general sentiment. “Lamar Jackson’s dual-threat brilliance,” raved another. But for the rest, these stats failed to leave the desired impact.
For starters, these fans couldn’t overlook the Ravens quarterback’s poor playoff output. “Lamar is HIM until the playoffs then he is not HIM at all,” argued an “X” user.
Others, meanwhile, made a case for Barkley by noting how the running back had poor resources around him in New York, when compared to Jackson, who has had very competent personnel in Baltimore since joining. “Sadly Saquon was on the Giants before he went to a real team. This wouldn’t be a post if he never was in NY,” chimed in a fan.
Regardless of the wide spectrum of arguments, in the end, this comparison definitely highlights exactly why Jackson is such a singular force in the league.
His playoff story may still have chapters left to be written, but in terms of sheer athletic dominance, he’s already in rare company, sitting alongside the best running backs while playing quarterback. And that’s a stat line nobody saw coming.
