Lamar Jackson passes Mike Vick gold standard in 'Madden' speed rating

Terez Paylor
·Senior NFL writer
Updated

The similarities between Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson and Michael Vick are so numerous that even Vick himself told Yahoo Sports recently that he can’t help but acknowledge and appreciate them.

While Jackson, a 22-year-old second-year pro, still has a ways to go to match all of Vick’s accomplishments on the gridiron, he has already surpassed Vick in one small way — as the fastest quarterback ever in the “Madden” video game franchise.

On Tuesday evening, EA Sports announced that Jackson, a leading MVP candidate, got a speed boost to 96, besting Vick’s previous record of 95.

And Vick, who recently talked to Yahoo Sports about all things Jackson, has one piece of advice for the young star now that he is set to join him as a video game icon.

“Take it and run with it,” Vick said. “Take it and run with it. It’s a cool feature man, one that nobody can take away from you.”

Vick, of course, knows what that’s like. He was on the cover of “Madden 2004,” and the unstoppable nature of his likeness in that game has made him an iconic figure for an entire generation, one that current superstars openly hope to duplicate and fans regularly mention to Vick to this day.

“I do get it a lot,” Vick said. “I’ve got people that [say how they] won money with me, how they dominated with me, how I was the best player on the game, fastest ever … it was cool. I get that all the time.”

Perhaps Jackson will now too, something Vick couldn’t be happier about. In fact, he and Nike even collaborated to create a cleat to recognize Jackson’s speed boost in “Madden,” one that features the EA Sports and Madden logos and includes the phrase “Not bad for a RB” — a nod to Jackson’s draft doubters – and “Your Turn,” a nod to Vick passing the speed torch to Jackson, whose overall rating of 87 in the game has gone up 11 points since the start of the season.

“He’ll probably end up on the cover [one day], and that’s all good too,” Vick said. “It’s good to see a guy like Lamar being the face of speed now.”

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