Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens is 350 away from Michael Vick’s NFL record for career rushing yards by a quarterback. In his rookie season, Bo Nix has been able to make plays with his legs, too, so ahead of their meeting on Sunday, the Denver Broncos quarterback was asked how much of Jackson’s game he had in his skill set.

“If I try to do what Lamar would do, I wouldn’t be here,” Nix said. “He’s special when it comes to not only running the ball — he’s well known for his explosive runs — but he’s a full qualified quarterback in the pocket and he does some really good things with his arm. I think he’s underrated when it comes to throwing the ball.

“It’s going to be fun seeing him. I’ve never met him. It’s going to be fun being around him, watching him in person — the second time I watched him play. When I was in high school, I went and watched the (Louisville-)Clemson game, and he was electric in that one, too.

“I’m excited to play against him on the same level. It’s still crazy I get to play against these guys. Growing up watching him, he’s a two-time MVP. He’s been doing it for a few years now at a high level. I definitely don’t want to be compared to him at running the ball because I’m not quite there.”

Jackson has run for 501 yards and two touchdowns on 81 carries this season. Nix has 259 yards and four touchdowns on 52 rushing attempts. Jackson’s runs have produced 25 first downs. Nix has run for 24 first downs.

“I’ve seen a talented guy who is a competitor,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said of his evaluation of Nix. “Has all of the throws. He’s certainly young. He’s learning as he goes as far as the reads and all of that. But moves around, he makes plays, gets away from the rush. I think he’s probably made more scramble tacklers miss in the backfield probably than any other quarterback in the league and has made a lot of plays that way, too. A talented guy, and we’re going to have to be at our very best.”

Denver and Baltimore have 5-3 records entering their meeting at noon CST Friday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

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“I think it’s just one of those games that is going to be really important for the outcome of both of our seasons,” Nix said. “And so we know it’s important for us, and, obviously, it’s going to be really important for them, so I think in saying that, the game’s ultimately pretty big.”

A former Pinson Valley High School and Auburn quarterback, Nix has completed 165-of-261 passes for 1,530 yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions. The Ravens defense has yielded the most passing yards in the NFL this season, but Nix said that’s a deceiving statistic. Baltimore has given up the fewest rushing yards in the league.

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“I see a lot of teams having to go to the pass because they’re down by a few scores,” Nix said. “You can’t chase points, but essentially that’s what they force teams to do. They get an early lead, and teams stop running the ball on them and they have to go to the pass, so because of that, naturally teams are going to gain yards through the air if they’re one-dimensional. I think in saying that, we have to do a good job of staying balanced this game.”

Sunday’s game will be the second of the Broncos’ four games against the AFC North this season. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated Denver 13-6 on Sept. 15 in Nix’s second game. The Broncos will play the Cleveland Browns on Dec. 2 and the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 29.

“They have notoriously been physical,” Nix said about facing the Baltimore defense. “Guys that have come before have set the tone for who they are as a defense, so we know it’s going to be a physical football game. We know that they’re going to be really ready to play. They’ve kind of hit their stride. We just got to be good in all phases of the game. We got to do a good job running the ball. We got to stay good on early downs. We got to stay out of third-and-longs. We just got to execute. Execute the play that’s called. We’re going to have a good plan.

“Ultimately, we got to match it. We know what it’s going to be. We got to match the intensity, the passion and the physicality that they’re going to play with. I’m excited for the challenge because these are the type of games that you go through and you play and they’re extremely difficult and they’re hard at the moment, but when you get out of them, you grow a lot as a player. You learn a lot about yourself, about your team. Ultimately, going on the road and competing and winning a game like this is special for an organization, too. It’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to be ready.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.