“I’m antsy right now. I’m hyped,” Jackson said in the days prior to his team taking on the New York Giants.
Thus, and using Jackson’s own words, he has a history of getting overly anxious about games, sometimes to his own detriment. It’s no secret that Jackson has underperformed in the postseason, relative to his regular-season success, so he’s trying a different approach this year, and it’s a less antsy approach.
He discussed his mindset in the past when it came to big games in a media session on Tuesday, which also happened to be Jackson’s 28th birthday.
Lots of players—and quarterbacks specifically—have a history of dominating in the regular season only to continuously fall short when it mattered the most, and that’s in the playoffs. Peyton Manning infamously struggled in the postseason early in his career as he won two MVP awards before he even won a conference championship game.
However, Jackson’s struggles are on another level, and in some ways historic, compared to his regular-season exploits. Over his regular-season career, Jackson averages 28.7 team points per game when he starts, which is the highest points average in NFL history (minimum five starts). But in the postseason, that team’s PPG average drops down to 16.0 points, which is the lowest by any quarterback since 1990 (minimum five starts).
While team points per game involve more than just Jackson’s production, the drop-off is just as drastic from an individual standpoint. The quarterback’s career passer rating in the regular season of 102.0 is the third-best in NFL history, trailing only Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. His postseason passer rating, however, plummets down to 75.7, which doesn’t even register among the top 50 in NFL postseason history.
Speaking of history, that’s what Jackson made in the 2024 NFL season, which is saying a lot considering his past accomplishments. After winning his second MVP last year, Jackson went out and passed for roughly 500 more yards and 17 more touchdowns than in 2023, while throwing three fewer interceptions. He became the first player, ever, with 4,000 passing yards and 800 rushing yards in a season and the first player, ever, with 40-plus passing touchdowns and fewer than five interceptions. Jackson led the league in yards per pass attempt, QBR, and passer rating, with his 119.6 rating being the fourth-best in NFL history.
Jackson will now look to carry over that success into his seventh playoff game during Wild Card Weekend, and hopefully beyond. Over his six prior postseason contests, he’s had more touchdowns than turnovers just once. He has six passing touchdowns versus six interceptions in the playoffs, in addition to three rushing touchdowns compared to three lost fumbles.
That could weigh on any player, and Jackson will carry that scar tissue with him into this year’s postseason. However, he isn’t dwelling on the past, albeit he admits that one playoff game still sticks with him.
“My mind is going forward. I was young in the beginning, and it happened fast,” Jackson said of past playoff disappointments. “The only one I do think about is the AFC Championship [loss to the Chiefs last season]. That’s probably the only playoff game I do think about, because we was right there. But my mind, I’m focused now, though. It is what it is at this point.”
Jackson’s next opportunity to rewrite his playoff narrative comes on Saturday against a familiar foe in the divisional rival Pittsburgh Steelers. He couldn’t have asked for a better opponent ripe for the picking as not only did Pittsburgh lose its last four games of the regular season, but the Steelers have lost their last five playoff games as well. That five-game drought is the second-longest active streak amongst NFL teams, trailing only the Miami Dolphins’ six-game losing streak.
The quarterback sports a 2–4 career record versus Pittsburgh, including a Week 11 loss to it this season. He has eight total touchdowns versus the Steelers, compared to 12 turnovers, but this will be his first time seeing them in the postseason. A Ravens victory, and Jackson playing well, won’t change many people’s opinions of him, but a loss could lead to even the most ardent Jackson supporters abandoning him.
The real tests would come after the Wild Card Round. If the top seeds prevail, then awaiting Baltimore would be a visit to Buffalo in the Divisional Round, followed by a visit to Kansas City in the AFC Title Game, before even matching up with the top NFC team in the Super Bowl. That potential path would make any NFL player excited at just the thought of navigating it, but being overly excited, amped up, or antsy is not on Jackson’s to-do list for the 2025 NFL playoffs.
