Lamar Jackson Dismisses Idea of Ravens vs. 49ers as Super Bowl 58 Preview

Lamar Jackson isn't buying into the hype of Monday's game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers as a potential preview of Super Bowl 58.

Speaking to reporters about the marquee matchup, Jackson dismissed it as anything more than a regular-season game between two good teams.

"The Super Bowl is in February," he said. "We're in December right now. We've got to focus on Monday night. I'm not worried about what people say."

The Ravens and 49ers enter their Week 16 contest leading their respective conferences with identical 11-3 records.

Per Pro Football Talk's Michael David Smith, this is the latest into a season that two teams tied for the league's best record will play each other since 1993 when the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants (both 11-4) squared off in Week 17 with the NFC East title at stake.

The Cowboys won that game, 16-13 in overtime, to earn the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. They went on to win the Super Bowl for the second consecutive season.

From that perspective, Jackson is right about this game not being that important. There could be a division title at stake, but even that might not be the case because if the Cleveland Browns lose to the Houston Texans on Sunday, the Ravens will clinch the AFC North.

If the Browns beat the Texans, Baltimore will have to defeat San Francisco to win the AFC North. The 49ers already locked up the NFC West title with their victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 15.

There is some potential impact on AFC playoff seeding based on the result of this game. If the Ravens lose and Miami Dolphins win, the two teams will be tied with 11-4 records going into their head-to-head showdown in Baltimore on Dec. 31.

While there will certainly be a lot to takeaway from the outcome of Monday's game, the result of the Ravens-49ers game doesn't necessarily mean anything as far as what might happen in a potential Super Bowl matchup between the two teams.

If nothing else, though, it should be fun to watch arguably the two most talented teams in the NFL square off at this late point in the season.