After throwing a league-high 36 touchdown passes, rushing for a quarterback-record 1,206 yards and leading a record-setting offense that catapulted the Ravens to a 14-2 season and the top seed in the AFC, Lamar Jackson is the presumptive NFL Most Valuable Player.

As his star grows, so has his popularity.

Jackson is ranked No. 12 on the NFL Players Association’s official list of top-selling players based on sales of all officially licensed NFL merchandise from March 1, 2019, to Nov. 30, 2019.

The second-year quarterback has quickly ascended, rising from No. 41 heading into the season and closing in on a top-10 finish when the year-end list is revealed in April.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes moved into the top spot, passing New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who has finished each of the past two seasons as the top player on the list. Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is No. 3, followed by Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Mahomes ranked second in the NFLPA’s preseason rankings after winning the 2018 Most Valuable Player award, but the third-year quarterback surged ahead during the 2019 season as the Chiefs went 12-4, earned the No. 2 seed in the AFC and reached the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years.

Four players had big leaps in sales from the preseason list to in-season rankings; Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper jumped 19 spots (No. 49 to No. 30), Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch 17 spots (No. 35 to No. 18), Jackson 14 spots (No. 26 to No. 12) and Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams 11 spots (No. 44 to No. 33).

More NFL: The first person coach Mike Vrabel called when hired by the Titans two years ago was Dean Pees, and Vrabel lured him out of a very short retirement after leaving the Ravens.

Pees, who turned 70 last September, said this retirement is final after 16 seasons in the NFL with the Patriots, Ravens and now the Titans. Pees was among nine defensive coordinators to go to Super Bowls with two different teams and just missed becoming the first to do that with three.

“I talked him out of retirement once,” Vrabel said Monday. “I didn’t have the heart to do it a second time.“

Pees left the Ravens at the end of the 2017 season, a day after Baltimore lost to the Cincinnati Bengals on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Andy Dalton to Tyler Boyd with 44 seconds remaining that kept the team out of the playoffs.

Associated Press contributed.