BALTIMORE — No one had seen anything like him, no one had seen a quarterback like him, this lanky dual threat who could beat you with a rocket arm and jets for legs. Sports Illustrated hailed him on the cover of its 1989 NFL preview as The Ultimate Weapon. In smaller print: “Philadelphia’s Randall Cunningham: The Quarterback for the ’90s.”

Come Saturday night, The Quarterback for the ’90s will be just like the rest of us, watching Lamar Jackson take his breath away the way he took everybody’s breath away in a different day.

“No,” Cunningham said from Las Vegas, “it’s more than fun. It’s like you don’t want commercials on. Just get rid of all the commercials and let’s just watch this young man.”

This young man who has captured imaginations everywhere will try to get the Ravens past the Titans to the AFC Championship game with an arm that wasn’t supposed to be able to throw 36 touchdowns against only six interceptions, wasn’t supposed to be efficient enough for a 66.1 completion percentage, with ankle-breaking legs that gashed defenses for 1,206 yards and seven more TDs.

“This is only Year 2 for him? The kid’s breaking all the records, he’s the most exciting player in the history of the game as a quarterback,” Cunningham said. “I could [only] imagine what his viewership is like with him and the team. It’s got to be off the charts.”

It was on the sideline in Cincinnati when Ravens head coach John Harbaugh crouched down in front of the bench where Jackson was sitting and told him: “You changed the game, man … you know how many little kids in this country are going to be wearing number ‘8’ playing quarterback for the next 20 years?”

Cunningham: “I would say that, but history repeats itself. We all have to go back and remember that there was a man in Chicago named Bobby Douglass who ran the ball. I was able to eclipse his rushing record, and then Michael Vick eclipsed my rushing record and now Lamar Jackson has eclipsed all the records.”

Cunningham finished his 16-year career with 207 touchdown passes and 4,928 rushing yards and 35 TDs. Vick finished his 13-year career with 133 TD passes and 6,109 rushing yards and 36 TDs.

“To me it’s hard to compare the two, because as soon as you look at Michael Vick, the first thing you want to do is say, ‘He can’t throw.’ That guy had one of the strongest arms in the history of the NFL,” Cunningham said. “But the difference with Lamar is they have really built that offense around all the talent. Michael was making things happen on his own. They didn’t have to make rushing plays for him, he was gonna do it on his own.

“They tried to do that with me, where they had designed running plays. I didn’t want designed running plays. Don’t have blockers in front of me, I just want to take off when I want to take off — that’s Lamar. Lamar has designed running plays, but he’ll take off. Michael, he used to take off. He’d drop back and run a sweep on his own, ’cause he would read the defense and he knew that he could outrun the D-line or linebackers and the safeties.”

Life is safer in the pocket for quarterbacks, but some worry Jackson is vulnerable to unnecessary hits when he spots daylight. Does Cunningham worry?

“No. Because he’s not scared,” Cunningham said. “He’s not worried about that, he’s smart. I just went and watched his highlight reel the other day, and it was like plays where he would run and he’d make people look crazy. So it’s like this awareness you have to have of him ’cause you don’t know what he’s gonna do, so it’s not like he can run up and just blast Lamar. Oh no. That kid’s smart. He has very, very good instincts.”

Cunningham, 56, is now a pastor at Remnant Ministries.

“There’s what’s called in church an anointing on that team, on him, on the coaching staff,” Cunningham said. “You could just tell that God is doing special work for them like He did with us in Minnesota back in 1998.”

Cunningham threw 34 TD passes against 10 INTs that year in a season that ended 60 minutes short of a Super Bowl.

“I’m kinda like living through him right now,” Cunningham said of Jackson. “If I was playing today, I would want that same feeling that he gets and that team gets ’cause it reminds me of the Minnesota Vikings in the year that we were dominating, or in Philadelphia.”

There is no feeling like it.

“The feeling that he has now is the feeling that I had when they were putting that on Sports Illustrated,” Cunningham said. “It’s kinda like you know that the sky’s the limit, and there is no second-guessing. The hype around you, you can’t get caught up into it. You gotta remain humble, thankful, and it’s kinda like just keep on going. And don’t think that it’s ever gonna end, you just gotta keep on playing. And the way they play together and the way they gel together, it’s simply amazing.”

His advice for Lamar Jackson?

“I’d just tell him keep having fun,” Cunningham said. “Don’t sit around worrying about anything, don’t worry about victories, just keep having fun, doing what he’s doing because there’s a power behind him that’s bigger than anything anybody knows.

“I know what it’s like having a coach that believes in you, a head coach like Buddy Ryan believed in me. Having a team that believes in you, all of his teammates, they love him, they love each other, the city, they love their team, so you got something special that you gotta seize the moment. But there’s no time to worry or be anxious for anything, just go have fun.”

If only we could get rid of all the commercials.