Lamar Jackson put the finishing touches on his Sunday afternoon with a black marker.

A folded No. 5 jersey — signed by Washington rookie Jayden Daniels and scuffed with green turf marks by the Ravens’ defense — sat in his locker. Wrapped in a towel, Jackson inscribed his own No. 8 with a message for Daniels, a player who earned his Heisman Trophy vote in college and who Jackson said deserves all the hype he’s gotten.

Yet, like many of the impressive quarterbacks who have come to Baltimore before him, Daniels left Sunday afternoon with the jersey of the winning quarterback and a loss — a reminder of the NFL heights he has left to scale.

It’s nothing new. Except for Patrick Mahomes, almost every quarterback who goes head to head with Jackson comes out a loser.

Four weeks in a row, the Ravens have taken apart quarterbacks who are MVP candidates or possess MVP talent. Four weeks in a row, Jackson has gotten the last laugh.

Give a two-time MVP some love already. Jackson’s in the driver’s seat to be named the league’s best player again.

For the last three weeks, in my self-imposed sentence of watching Monday morning talk shows, I’ve heard analysts opine that Jackson wasn’t the best quarterback on the field in his own wins. It’s Sunday afternoon as I write these words, but I can already foresee the league’s punditry hyping up Daniels’ 269-yard, two-touchdown performance in the latest bid to humble Jackson and the Ravens.

Let’s get ahead of this. No, Daniels wasn’t better than Lamar. Neither was Joe Burrow. Neither was Josh Allen. Neither was Dak Prescott.

“Washington has found their Lamar Jackson,” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said recently about Daniels.

It’s like buying the latest iPhone for the last five years. Turns out the new version can’t beat the original.

Jackson’s afternoon in a 30-23 win seemed underappreciated even as he was putting it together. He was 20-for-26 with 323 yards passing, and he ran for 40 yards — including a 33-yard dash that was the longest rushing play of the day. He averaged 12.4 yards per pass attempt, which was the fifth-highest mark of his career. He was 11-for-14 against Washington’s man coverage, picking it apart at his leisure.

He threw for just one touchdown, and his big slip-up of the day was a slightly overthrown pass to Mark Andrews that got tipped for an interception. Jackson cleaned it up himself, however, by tackling Mike Sainristil.

He had a higher completion percentage than Daniels. A better quarterback rating. He accounted for more passing yards and more rushing yards, and he won. Daniels had a few exceptional pinpoint throws that will stand out in highlight tapes — but there’s no other way you could gauge that he’s a better player than Jackson, who has never lost to a starting rookie quarterback in his career (7-0).

Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman and Andrews had season-best receiving performances. Jackson is the common thread.

“A lot of people can say what they want, but it speaks for itself,” Bateman said. “I don’t know what they want the guy to do.”

Me neither.

I’m tired of watching analysts cherry pick highlights to discredit Jackson or hype up his competition. I’m tired of his teammates being used as a way to diminish his week-to-week greatness. I’m tired of the narrative of voter fatigue working against him — if anything, Jackson’s previous MVPs should count as a strength because no one has figured out how to stop him in his seventh year in the league.

Jackson isn’t perfect, but show me who has been better than him thus far — and find a guy who hasn’t lost head to head against him. Even Mahomes, who beat Jackson again to start this season, has as many touchdowns as interceptions (6).

Jackson is on pace to throw for his highest passing total ever (254 yards per game), just one year after setting a career mark. Both interceptions he’s thrown have bounced of receivers’ hands. The idea that he’s a run-first QB is a dead assessment based on outdated information. By the data, he’s one of the league’s best passers, too.

He’s also presiding over the NFL’s best rushing offense, which of course has Derrick Henry but also relies on the threat of Jackson’s legs and arm. The biggest difference for Henry this year is how many yards he’s gained before contact — a reflection of better blocking but also a defense’s indecision when facing Lamar freaking Jackson.

“You have to respect him,” Henry said. “There’s no question. I mean, Lamar is Lamar — every team knows that. … He’s a two-time MVP for a reason, and I’m glad to be on his team now, and it’s been fun.”

It just so happened that Jackson moved past Cam Newton on the all-time quarterback rushing list Sunday. Now he’s chasing only Michael Vick (6,109 yards), a player he’s surpassed in touchdown passes (135) in just 92 games.

“It’s dope,” Jackson said. “Not just because it’s Mike Vick [at] No. 1, but it’s all the great guys who I’m in great company with — Cam Newton, stuff like that. Steve McNair. Like all those great guys who [were] before me. It’s just great to be in discussion with those guys.”

When it’s all said and done, Vick, Newton and McNair will be grateful to be in discussion with Jackson.

We know what Jackson has to do to change the narratives about him: win a Super Bowl. All he can do until then is steamroll the competition, often spectacularly.

Even games like his 348-yard, four-touchdown, no-interception performance against Cincinnati don’t seem to turn heads. For the week leading up to the Commanders game, I read a lot and watched a lot — even had conversations with people I respect — about how Jackson might be the second-best quarterback on the field Sunday.

This game probably won’t stop these narratives, even if it ought to.

For now, the real ones know how tough it is to get to Jackson’s level. When asked what he learned from his sixth NFL start, Daniels almost seemed to sigh.

“It’s the NFL, and these are the type of games it’s gonna come down to,” Daniels said. “One-score games, close games, and we gotta figure out a way to pull those ones out.”

At least Daniels leaves with the jersey of the player he’s still looking up to — Jackson, who has been doing the kind of winning that he one day hopes to learn.