The 2025 NFL season was rough for black quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson — widely regarded as one of the three best QBs on the planet — watched the Baltimore Ravens limp to a 6-7 record with him under center, a gut-punch 26-24 final-week elimination loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers ending their playoff hopes and sending the most electrifying player in the game into an offseason defined by questions.
Patrick Mahomes, once as inevitable as a Kansas City January, saw his Chiefs collapse to a 6-11 finish and miss the playoffs for the first time with the three-time Super Bowl Champion in the starting role. Jalen Hurts and the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles displayed an impotent offence all year long before getting stunned by an injury-riddled San Francisco 49ers team in the Wild Card Round.
But 2025 is done and dusted. The Seattle Seahawks brought the curtain down on that particular chapter when they strangled the life out of the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LX in Levi’s Stadium to claim the Lombardi. Now, a new era dawns. But which black quarterbacks have the most to prove in the new season? Let’s take a look.
Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson remains one of the NFL’s singular talents, a two-time MVP whose dual-threat brilliance has changed the quarterback role forever. But heading into his ninth season with the Baltimore Ravens, there is no escaping his miserable postseason record.
He’s 3-5 in the playoffs, 0-3 against Mahomes and Josh Allen, with 13 touchdowns and 11 turnovers in eight postseason games. And 2025 only thickened the shadow, despite Baltimore not even featuring in January. The former Louisville Cardinal missed four games last term, three with a hamstring injury and one with a back issue, then played through knee, ankle, and toe problems the rest of the way.
He still flashed. A 238-yard, two-touchdown game against Pittsburgh in Week 18 as he looked to somehow drag his team kicking and screaming to a playoff berth. A 204-yard, four-touchdown burst against Miami. But the full picture was harsher: 2,549 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, a career-low 349 rushing yards, and Baltimore finishing 6-7 with him under center before that season-ending loss to the Steelers.
Online betting sites list Jackson and the Ravens among the favorites for the championship next season. The latest odds from Lucky Rebel Sportsbook position them as a +1000 joint second-favorite behind the Los Angeles Rams. But Baltimore has no chance of the Lombardi if Lamar can’t get it right in January. Now, he simply must flip the script.
Jordan Love
Green Bay paid Jordan Love like a franchise quarterback because that’s what the Packers believe he is. The record-tying extension came in 2024 and cleared $220 million. The problem is that money doesn’t settle arguments in January. Love is 1-3 in the playoffs, 0-2 in the games that really count, with five interceptions in the postseason. He has talent, poise, and a real arm. He also has a growing pile of receipts.
The 2025 season gave him help, then took it away. Micah Parsons arrived in Green Bay and changed the temperature of the whole roster; the defense suddenly looked like it could drag the Packers into a real Super Bowl conversation. Then Parsons tore his ACL against Denver in Week 15, and the air went out of the building. Love was concussed against Chicago in Week 16, missed the Week 17 game against Baltimore, and watched Malik Willis step in. By the time the playoffs arrived, Green Bay was patched together and brittle. Love threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns in the loss to Chicago, but the result was still another exit. The second straight in the wild card round.
Parsons is expected to be fit and healthy for Green Bay’s crunch Week 1 on the road at their NFC North rival Minnesota Vikings. Love will have the support he needs to drag this Packers side to a solid start, and he can no longer hide behind the excuse of a wounded roster or an incomplete supporting cast. He’s 27, in his prime, and surrounded by enough talent to win. It’s time to deliver.
Malik Willis
For four seasons, Malik Willis lived in the shadows, first in Tennessee and then in Green Bay, a third-round pick out of Liberty waiting for a chance that looked almost imaginary. He had the tools everyone saw on film: speed, arm strength, improvisational juice. What he didn’t have was a genuine shot. Then, the door cracked open just a touch.
Pressed into action when Love was concussed in Week 16, Willis completed 30 of 35 passes for 422 yards and three touchdowns across four appearances, added 123 rushing yards and two more scores, and posted a 145.5 passer rating without throwing an interception. That’s the kind of burst that gets a head coach believing in the impossible. Jeff Hafley, formerly Green Bay’s defensive coordinator and now Miami’s head coach, believed enough to sign Willis to a three-year, $67.5 million deal with $45 million guaranteed.
Miami didn’t exactly hand him a comfortable landing. The Dolphins released Tua Tagovailoa and absorbed a record $99 million in dead cap. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are gone. The cupboard is bare, the room is cold, and the rebuild is real. Willis is 26, and now the league gets to find out if the late-season spark was real or just a beautiful illusion.
Can a quarterback with that kind of passer rating turn it loose over 17 games against starting defenses? This is his test.
