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Ravens QB Lamar Jackson wins his second career NFL MVP award
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- Ravens QB Lamar Jackson wins his second career NFL MVP award
Lamar Jackson is now a two-time NFL MVP.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback won the award on Thursday at the NFL Honors in Las Vegas after leading his team to the AFC championship game in dominating fashion.
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Jackson nearly won the award unanimously for a second time, earning 49 of 50 first-place votes, with one going to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen . San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey , 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott were the other finalists.
He finished the regular season with a career-high 3,678 passing yards and added 24 touchdowns with seven interceptions. He had 821 rushing yards and five scores on the ground. This came following an offseason in which he resolved a bitter standoff with the team by signing a five-year extension worth $260 million , which he negotiated himself.
In the 2023 season, the Ravens often trounced opponents by double digits en route to posting a league-best 13-4 record. Jackson had two four-touchdown games during the regular season and reached the end zone five times in a 56-19 win over the Miami Dolphins . The team scored 17 points in the fourth quarter of its divisional-round matchup to seal a 34-10 win against the Houston Texans . But the Ravens were ousted from the postseason with a 17-10 loss to the the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
Jackson joins Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers as the only active players who have been named MVP more than once. Only 11 players in league history, including Jackson, have won the award multiple times.
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This season was Jackson's first under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who helped the team finish fourth in points (28.4 per game) and sixth in yards (370.4 per game).
Jackson won his first MVP award for the 2019 season , his second year in the league out of Louisville. The Pompano Beach, Florida, native was only the second unanimous MVP in NFL history and, at 23, was the second-youngest player to win the award.
That season, Jackson had 3,127 passing yards with a league-high 36 passing touchdowns and only six interceptions. He notched 1,206 yards rushing, breaking Michael Vick's single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback , and led the NFL with 6.9 yards per carry. The Ravens again had the best regular-season record of any team at 14-2 but fell to the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lamar Jackson wins NFL MVP for second time in Ravens QB's career
