Four Verts: Lamar Jackson's historic pace, what to make of NFL's messy middle, and we'll see these teams in 2025

Lamar Jackson is having one of the greatest seasons in NFL history — from any player.

The Ravens quarterback has been the best quarterback in football this year .

If he can keep up this pace he'll waltz into a third MVP , joining the ranks of Peyton Manning , Aaron Rodgers , Tom Brady , Brett Favre and Jim Brown .

The Denver Broncos' defense is playing at a championship level each week .

The Carolina Panthers have no real depth to speak of and are going to be bad for quite some time.

The Cleveland Browns have been terrible all season long, but they'll be undergoing a quarterback change now that Deshaun Watson is out for the rest of the season.

The Titans are currently ranked second in success rate ( 60.2% ), ninth in expected points added per play ( 0.17 ) and fifth in third -down conversion percentage ( 31.6% ) As long as this offense can stay healthy, the Lions' Super Bowl sights are firmly realistic.

The Giants and Raiders are just dead men walking and don't have much by the way of hope until they can make a slew of offseason moves.