Four Verts: Seriously, nobody even tried to pry Lamar Jackson away from the Ravens?

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone who got to see their team win this weekend. The MVP odds took another shakeup this week after the Baltimore Ravens' win over the San Francisco 49ers, which is a great place to end the holiday season with a renewed sense of focus over what No. 8 in Baltimore is doing this season.

Lamar Jackson was probably never going to leave the Ravens, but no teams even tried

Once again, the NFL landscape finds itself with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson running the league, two weeks away from locking up his second MVP award in five seasons. Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers are the other players who have won multiple MVP awards since Jackson was drafted in 2018. That’s rare air, shutting down any doubts that Jackson may have had coming into the league over his ability to play quarterback. Jackson has a chance to become just the 11th player in league history with multiple MVP awards, putting him on track to be a Hall of Famer by the end of his career.

Jackson’s season is incredible on its own merits, but there’s an added layer of humor here because he was technically available this offseason on a franchise tag. Any team could have tried to negotiate a contract with him and sent two first-round draft picks the Ravens' way for his services, but no one tried. In fact, teams tripped over themselves to say they didn’t have interest in acquiring Jackson — who, again, is on pace to win his second MVP award!

Almost every single team in the league would benefit from swapping out their quarterback for Jackson, but the first team that leaked they weren’t interested has to be kicking themselves for not even trying: the Atlanta Falcons, in all of their glory. Falcons owner Arthur Blank essentially said Jackson was too injury-prone for them to make a trade, but they didn’t even try before shutting down any nonexistent efforts to get a trade in. They’ve spent the entire season flip-flopping between Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinecke at quarterback and now head coach Arthur Smith is fighting for his job over the final few weeks of the season.

Ridder and Heinecke. Lamar Jackson. To not even try to acquire Jackson when that was the state of Atlanta's quarterback situation is fairly faulty, especially as Jackson is on the verge of making history and leading the Ravens to home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs.

It’s likely that the Ravens would have matched any contract offer that came in, but not a single team tried to negotiate anything with Jackson that would have at least forced the Ravens to make a decision on how much they wanted to pay their franchise quarterback. Just because the Ravens would have matched doesn’t mean it’s not worth making the effort. Jackson is one of the best and most unique players that this league has ever seen and he’s set up to be a dominant figure in the sport for the long-term future.

Nope, not interested in even trying. And that’s the most embarrassing part for the league. Lob accusations of collusion, or blame it on unwritten rules or pure laziness. Label it what you want, teams deserve to sit on the sideline and watch Jackson continue to rack up accolades.

Jadeveon Clowney has drank from the fountain of youth this season

The Ravens have gotten a lot of incredible performances out of their defense this year, but one of the most fascinating players who has been a major contributor this season is edge defender Jadeveon Clowney.

Clowney joined the team in mid-August and he has been one of the most impactful players on a defense that features Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey. Clowney has a chance to set a career high in sacks at age 30 on arguably the best defense in the league, and his presence has helped the Ravens become the NFL's most feared pass defense.

Being able to find edge production from players like Clowney and Kyle Van Noy helps take this defense to the next level. The Ravens spent a lot of money in free agency and draft picks on the back seven of their defense — and those players are performing up to task. They have spent a first- and second-round pick on Odafe Oweh and David Ojabo, respectively, but the bulk of their edge production is coming from the veterans.

Not only has Clowney chipped in with 8.5 sacks, he’s also tied for third on the team with eight tackles for a loss. He’s always been an ace run defender in his career and his presence opens up explosive play opportunities for teammates. In a way, this has been a cool full-circle moment as he returns to relevance as a dominant player, considering he was once the most hyped defensive prospect of an entire draft class.

This is the part of roster-building that turns good units into elite units. Spend big on Smith, Humphrey, Hamilton and Marcus Williams, and then fill in the gaps with home run hits on Clowney and Van Noy. It’s a masterful job by general manager Eric DeCosta to find these perfect fits for this defense, and by coordinator Mike Macdonald to deploy them together.

Clowney has become an important piece of the puzzle for the Ravens, which seemed unlikely based on his path toward ending up in Baltimore. Getting him in the fold has changed the complexion of this defense and he’s been as big of a part of their run to an 11-3 record as anyone not named Lamar Jackson.

49ers' loss on Christmas doesn't change much for them

The 49ers got pantsed on Christmas when the Ravens walked into their arena and pummeled them. Brock Purdy had the worst game of his career, the defense wasn’t up to par and the Niners got smoked in a manner that not many people saw happening. Purdy showed he was not in the tier of the truly valuable quarterbacks, sitting late in the game with a stinger. It was a full-on disaster for the 49ers.

And they will likely be fine.

A bump in the road is a bump in the road — sometimes it doesn’t have to be much more than that. Every team except for the Ravens has been blown out at some point this season. It happens, the NFL is an extremely competitive league. This doesn’t have to be a referendum on what’s possible for the 49ers this season. They’re still one of the Super Bowl favorites and still by far the best team in the NFC.

There should be some concerns about the way Purdy handled the pressure that the Ravens brought, but a four-interception day is an unusual result that is unlikely to repeat itself, even in the playoffs. Purdy’s passes were errant, but having multiple passes deflected into an interception is also a rarity in the NFL. He was a liability against the Ravens, but it is fair to wonder if he will have a game this poor at any point in the near future. He is still playing with the NFL’s version of the Avengers.

Another positive sign from that game is that Christian McCaffrey was still Christian McCaffrey. He was able to knife through the Ravens' defense at times, and the 49ers' running game was still serviceable for the most part. It’s just hard to beat a team with a dialed-in Lamar Jackson while turning the ball over five total times. It’s not going to happen against the 2023 Ravens.

Like McCaffrey, the 49ers' defense was also put in uphill situations. The Ravens capitalized on the short fields that their defense and special teams created. Baltimore’s three touchdown drives were 53 yards, 44 yards and 9 yards. Giving any offense short fields is asking for trouble in the NFL, let alone a team that has an MVP favorite at quarterback.

Two things are true about the 49ers: They got their butts beat by the Ravens, and they were also unlucky in a way that they’re unlikely to see moving forward. The sky isn’t falling with the 49ers. The focus now becomes a question that isn’t new: Can this team win a Super Bowl with Brock Purdy as its quarterback? Most likely, yes — but we’re about to find out.

Benching Sam Howell captures the entire essence of the Ron Rivera era

The end of the Ron Rivera era in Washington is here, with Rivera making a last-ditch effort to save his job with … Jacoby Brissett.

Brissett is taking over as quarterback for the rest of the season after second-year quarterback Sam Howell was benched in the fourth quarter of the Commanders’ previous two games. It's a final, flailing effort to look like a respectable team on the way out the door as the Commanders undoubtedly look to clean house this offseason under new ownership.

Benching Howell with two games left in the season when they’ve been eliminated from playoff contention is such a bare-boned decision. Howell has had some ups and downs, but at the end of the day he’s going to have a bigger role in the future of this franchise than Brissett. The Commanders are in range for a top quarterback prospect with how the season goes, so Howell may end up as the backup next season, but starting Brissett at the end of this horrible season doesn’t really achieve anything.

There was a clear conflict of interest this year walking into the Commanders' season. Rivera and the new ownership group weren’t on the same timeline with how this season should progress. If Rivera wanted to save his job, it's clear at this point that starting Brissett should have been the plan all along. Ownership wanted to see Howell, leaving the Commanders with a coach who needed to win and a quarterback who was too young to see that type of season through.

Like most of the Rivera years in Washington, this year was spent in no man’s land. The roster isn’t completely talentless, but the Commanders also have a ways to go if they want to catch up to the Cowboys and Eagles in their division. Now, the entire operation is going to be taken apart in a few weeks and it doesn’t feel like the Commanders have made any tangible progress on what the team's future looks like.

Perhaps this is the year the Commanders needed with their ownership switch — a clean reason to tear this franchise apart at the seams. Rivera will ultimately finish his time with the Commanders winning around 40% of his games with no defining moments. It’s time for the new ownership to make its imprint on the team, and it cant possibly be as gray and dreary as the past few years have been.