Lamar Jackson

Jackson's 2016 — 51 total touchdowns, 4,929 total yards, the Heisman won by the largest margin since Ingram-over-Gerhart — was a season the sport's evaluators didn't have a vocabulary for. He played in the ACC at Louisville for Bobby Petrino, a program that would not contend, on a roster that did not deserve him, and he produced the kind of season that retroactively made the position broader than every coaching tree had assumed. The 2017 follow-up — 3,660 passing, 1,601 rushing, 45 total touchdowns — was statistically better in the ways that ought to matter, and a 9-4 finish meant zero national conversation. The draft slot was the punishment for playing in the wrong league at the wrong moment. The two NFL MVPs are the receipt the college vote owed.