Ravens QB Lamar Jackson Suffers Back Injury
The Ravens’ playoff hopes were dealt a massive blow on Sunday. The team’s loss – along with a win by the Steelers – leaves Baltimore in a must-win situation for Week 17. 
It is unclear if the team’s starting quarterback will be available for that game, however. Lamar Jackson exited yesterday’s contest late in the second quarter due to a back injury and he did not return. Head coach John Harbaugh described the ailment as “a bruise of some kind.” He added (via ESPN’s Jamison Hensley) it is unclear at this point if Jackson will miss Baltimore’s next game.
The two-time MVP made it clear when speaking to the media that his goal is to suit up against Green Bay on Saturday. Jackson said (via Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic) he is set to undergo a CT scan today. The results of further testing will go a long way in determining whether or not another missed contest will be in store in this case. Jackson missed three full games earlier in the season, one which has been marred by several injuries.
Since returning to the lineup upon recovering from a hamstring ailment, Jackson has dealt with knee, ankle and toe injuries over an extended period. The 28-year-old has sat out practice time every week since he came back into the fold, an indication of his health status even before last night’s latest injury. Jackson’s situation over the coming days will be worth monitoring closely.
Of course, the same is also true of Packers starter Jordan Love. A concussion knocked him out of Green Bay’s Week 16 loss, and Love remains in the protocol at this time. As a result, there is a possibility the upcoming matchup between the teams will feature backups Malik Willis and Tyler Huntley under center.
Huntley led the Ravens to a win earlier this season, and he came close to doing so again yesterday. Nevertheless, the Ravens’ preference would obviously be to have Jackson available on Saturday. A win against Green Bay followed by a Steelers loss the following day will be necessary for Baltimore to remain in playoff contention in Week 18. Whether or not the team’s starting QB will suit up remains to be seen.
Ravens Altering Lamar Jackson’s Weekly Prep After Injuries
After a four-week absence earlier in the year, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson came back to salvage a 1-5 start to the year, building momentum off of a Tyler Huntley win over the Bears to continue what would become a five-game win streak that brought them up to 6-5 and first place in the AFC North. Despite the team success, there have been questions about whether or not Jackson is back to full health, and a look at his practice participation may provide clues to the answers. 
It was a hamstring injury that held Jackson out for three games. He was able to get three practices in before his Thursday night return in Miami, and he got a full week of practices in for the trip to Minnesota right after. But, following the win over the Vikings, Jackson missed the team’s first practice of the week with a knee injury before fully participating for the rest of the week before the Cleveland game. Last week, we saw Jackson sit out on Wednesday, again, this time with an ankle injury, before, again, practicing fully leading up to the matchup against the Jets.
Early Sunday morning, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that, after doing this rest pattern over the past few weeks, Baltimore was considering intentionally resting Jackson every Wednesday, in order to keep him fresh for games. True to the reporting, with the Ravens having an altered practice schedule this week due to a Thanksgiving Day assignment, Jackson sat out of Monday’s practice, per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley, and returned to the field on Tuesday, mirroring the recently adopted routine. According to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, this absence was designated as a toe injury, after Jackson reportedly hurt the appendage at the start of the Jets game.
While Baltimore is calling it rest, reporters, opponents, and more are openly wondering if Jackson isn’t still actually dealing with something. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was one such member of the media who speculated that, having played through knee, ankle, hamstring, and toe issues so far this year, Jackson’s performance has been limited since coming back.
In the four games Jackson’s played since returning from injury, he hasn’t rushed for more than 36 yards in a game. And after a strong passing performance at Miami (78.3 completion percentage, four touchdowns), he’s struggled to be efficient as a passer in the team’s last three victories, completing only 57.1 percent of his passes while only throwing one touchdown to two interceptions. It can’t quite be said that he doesn’t have the ability to escape from pass rushers or tuck the ball and break off a 15-yard run, because we’ve seen him do a bit of that recently, but he’s seemed to lack his trademark explosive speed making both his run and pass game suffer as a result. Jackson insists that injuries aren’t affected his play, but until he’s seen breaking off 40-yard scrambles, teams will likely have their doubts.
In other injury news for Baltimore, safety Ar’Darius Washington has started getting some pregame work in as he continues rehabilitation for his Achilles tendon. Zrebiec reports that Washington could see his practice window open soon. This would be big for a Ravens defense allowing the 12th-most passing yards in the NFL. Lining up next to All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton last year, the two helped turn a historically bad Ravens defense into a top performing unit. The Ravens traded for Alohi Gilman early this year, as rookie first-round pick Malaki Starks experienced a bit of a learning curve to start his career, and adding Washington back to the fold would give Baltimore an insanely deep four-man rotation at the backend of their secondary.
Ravens Fined For Lamar Jackson Injury Report Violation
The NFL has wrapped its investigation into the Ravens’ handling of Lamar Jackson‘s injury status last week. The team received a $100K fine for violating the league’s policy on injury reporting, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets.
Not docking the Ravens any draft picks or moving to suspend anyone, the league determined this violation stemmed from negligence on the team’s part rather than the AFC North club attempting to gain a competitive edge, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero adds. Had the NFL determined the Ravens were attempting to gain an advantage with their Jackson tactics, Pelissero adds a more significant penalty — including potential loss of picks — would have been levied.
The Ravens fully cooperated with the investigation, one centered around the team incorrectly listing Jackson’s Oct. 24 practice participation. As should be expected, the team will not appeal the fine.
Baltimore had listed Jackson as a full participant at practice Friday. The Ravens had planned a day of scout team reps for the mobile passer and saw him complete the workout with no issues. NFL regulations concerning injury reporting don’t allow this, though. If injury causes a player who would normally receive starting reps to practice with the scout team, they have to be listed as a limited participant at practice.
John Harbaugh labeled this an honest mistake, and the NFL investigation validated the longtime Ravens HC’s view of the matter. After notice from the league, Baltimore was forced to retroactively change Jackson’s practice participation, and the team announced Saturday that he would not play in Week 8’s game.
Entering their Bears matchup 1-5, the Ravens were able to win with Tyler Huntley starting in place of Jackson, whose practice report now lists three limited practices last week. That type of runup usually leads to a player suiting up for that week’s game — and a full workout Friday pointed to Jackson playing — but the Ravens ended up resting their QB ahead of their Thursday-night game in Miami. The NFL not ruling this a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters for the Bears will surely not go over well in Chicago, but Baltimore — which annually prioritizes compensatory picks — not being docked any late-round draft choices will bring a sigh of relief for that franchise.
This is not the first time a murky Jackson status has interfered with Ravens plans. The team had expected the superstar quarterback to return before the 2022 season ended, but he did not reappear that season after suffering a PCL sprain in Week 13. At that point, Jackson was unsigned for 2023. That added a wrinkle to the QB’s recovery saga. Now on a $52MM-per-year contract, Jackson has the Ravens back in the thick of an underhelming AFC North race. He threw four touchdown passes in Baltimore’s rout of Miami — a game that preceded the Dolphins separating from longtime GM Chris Grier — on Thursday.
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson Expected Back In Week 9
OCTOBER 29: Jackson himself confirmed on Tuesday that he was back to 100% and would start in Miami, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. He was a full participant in the Ravens’ first two practices of the week and may not even have an injury designation for Thursday night’s matchup.
OCTOBER 26: Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Ravens expect that quarterback Lamar Jackson will make his return from injury in Week 9’s Thursday night trip to Miami, per Jay Glazer of FOX Sports. These reports come on the heels of a weekend of Jackson injury news that could land the franchise in a bit of hot water. 
Way back after Week 6 as the Ravens’ four-game losing streak brought them to 1-5, many assumed that Jackson (and several other injured Ravens) would be coming back after the team’s Week 7 bye. That proved mostly true, as Jackson’s “questionable” designation on the injury report was the only injury designation for any Baltimore player this week. Yet even that injury designation wasn’t exactly what it seemed.
The team had listed Jackson as a full participant at practice on Friday after planning a day of scout team reps for the mobile passer and seeing him complete the day with no issues. NFL regulations concerning injury reporting don’t allow this, though. If injury causes a player that would normally be getting starting reps to practice with the scout team, they have to be listed as a limited participant at practice. After notice from the league, Baltimore was forced to retroactively change Jackson’s practice participation, and the team announced that he would not play in Week 8’s game.
Perhaps, this was an honest mistake, as head coach John Harbaugh reiterated in comments to the media after today’s game, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. Perhaps, it was a desperate attempt from a one-win team hoping to get any advantage possible by muddying the waters and keeping Chicago from knowing which quarterback it would be facing. After expressing hopes for two weeks that Jackson would return following their bye, it could certainly have been the latter, but that’s a matter for the NFL’s Management Council to determine.
Regardless, what makes this proclamation different from the ones for Week 8? According to Glazer, while Jackson may have been able to suit up for this weekend’s game, the Ravens were looking at a different benchmark. Because this weekend’s game will be so closely followed with an appearance on Thursday Night Football, Jackson needed to be at a place in which he would be fully confident playing two games in a five-day stretch. It was in the opinion of those involved that there was too high a risk of reinjury for him to play both games, so he was ruled out for Week 8 with an expectation to play back in his old digs in South Florida in Week 9.
With a short week providing fewer practices in which the team can gauge where Jackson is at, it will continue to be difficult to predict Jackson’s availability. Harbaugh certainly gave nothing away in today’s post-game press conference, merely telling reporters that “he’s hopeful that Lamar will play Thursday.”
The Ravens were able to pull off a win today with new backup quarterback Tyler Huntley. In his return to Baltimore, Huntley avoided turnovers, and the offense put up more points today (30) than they had in two games with Cooper Rush under center (13). This moves the team to 2-5 as they take the first of several steps necessary to make an improbable return to the playoffs. If Jackson can return in Miami Gardens, their chances for taking the next step will increase greatly.
NFL To Review Ravens’ Week 8 Injury Report
A hamstring injury has kept Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson out for three games, but he’s expected to return Thursday against the Dolphins. The team announced Jackson was a full participant in a walkthrough on Monday.
As it geared up for a Week 8 matchup with Chicago, Baltimore erred in announcing Jackson as a full participant in last Friday’s practice. Jackson was in attendance for the entire practice, but he only took snaps with the scout team.
According to the NFL’s injury policy, “Participation on the scout team, no matter how extensive, by a player whose normal repetitions would be with the starters but for his medical condition, would not alter the player’s proper designation as ‘Limited Participation.’”
The Ravens issued a correction Saturday, changing his practice status to limited while ruling him out for the game. Despite Jackson’s absence, the Ravens defeated the Bears behind backup signal-caller Tyler Huntley.
Although Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said the team made an “honest mistake” regarding Jackson’s injury designation last week (via Saad Yousuf of The Athletic), the NFL is now reviewing the matter, Mark Maske of the Washington Post relays.
“The league will look into this,” a league spokesperson said. “The league reviews any matter involving a change to a player’s status.”
The NFL’s investigation into the Ravens comes with the NBA embroiled in a gambling scandal since last Thursday. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to teams on Friday “regarding the gambling policy for league and team staffers,” according to Maske. Additionally, the NFL Management Council sent a memo to teams regarding the league’s gambling policy for players.
Regarding the NBA scandal, the NFL wrote in the memo (via Maske), “These developments underscore the risks that all sports are facing in the current environment and serve as a reminder of the need to adhere strictly to the NFL Gambling Policy.”
The change in Jackson’s status on Saturday did not reveal “any unusual betting activity,” Maske writes, though it did lead to a significant change in the spread. The Ravens opened as 6.5-point favorites. That figure immediately plummeted to 1.5 after they ruled the two-time MVP out.
With the NBA in the midst of a PR nightmare, it’s possible the NFL will come down hard on the Ravens. Forfeiture of draft picks, fines, and suspensions could all be on the table. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL’s “Personnel (Injury) Report Policy” states that the commissioner “may deprive the offending club of a selection choice or choices, and/or may fine the offending club and/or may fine or suspend with or without pay any involved individuals as appropriate.”
Even if the NFL finds that the Ravens did just make an “honest mistake,” the team still violated league policy. Although it could be minor, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Ravens receive some sort of punishment as a result.
Lamar Jackson Out For Week 8; Ravens To Start Tyler Huntley
2:46pm: Part of the story of Jackson’s downgrade came as Baltimore changed the reporting of his practice participation from yesterday, changing the original “full practice” reporting to “limited practice.” Per Ralph Vacchiano of FOX Sports, the reason for the change was that Jackson only took scout team snaps at practice yesterday, getting no reps with the usual starters. Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports provided the snippet from the NFL’s injury policy, which says, “participation on the scout team, no matter how extensive, by a player whose normal repetitions would be with the starters but for his medical condition, would not alter the player’s proper designation as ‘Limited Participation.'”
The NFL’s Management Council regularly investigates injury report disputes to ensure compliance with the policy, and though such investigations could take weeks, Baltimore could, at some point, be hit with a fine. Days after the largest sports gambling story in recent history hit the air waves, though, the league might think to make an example of the Ravens, if they find they can prove ill intent.
11:50am: Injured Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson will miss Week 8 against the Bears, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. Tyler Huntley, signed from the Ravens’ practice squad, will start. Jackson is expected to return in Week 9 in Miami.
While it was reported that Jackson was a full participant in practice on Friday, that was not the case. The Ravens announced that the two-time MVP remained limited with a hamstring injury. He’ll now miss his third straight game, an unwelcome development as Baltimore returns from its bye.
Off to a stunning 1-5 start after entering the season as Super Bowl hopefuls, the Ravens are 0-2 without Jackson. With Jackson unavailable, the Ravens initially turned to ex-Cowboy Cooper Rush as their starter. That couldn’t have gone worse. The Texans and Rams outscored the Ravens 61-13 in a pair of lopsided defeats. While Rush was a capable backup in Dallas, he went 25 for 39 for 251 yards, no touchdowns, and four interceptions in his first two starts as a Raven.
With Rush struggling mightily, the Ravens pulled him in favor of Huntley in the Rams game. Huntley finished the day 10 of 15 for 68 yards. Unlike Rush, Huntley can hurt defenses with his legs. He added 39 yards on three rushing attempts last week.
Huntley spent the first four years of his career in Baltimore before a regular-season stint with the Dolphins in 2024. He made nine starts for the Ravens from 2021-23. The team went 3-6 in those games, though Huntley’s 2-2 mark while filling in for Jackson in 2022 helped the Ravens earn a playoff berth.
As the Ravens try to keep their fading playoff hopes alive this year, they’ll need a strong performance out of Huntley against the 4-2 Bears. Regardless of whether the Ravens pull off a victory on Sunday, they’ll get Jackson back with a favorable schedule over the next several weeks. They’re set to face five straight sub-.500 opponents after Chicago, including the winless Jets in Week 12.
Lamar Jackson Not Guaranteed To Return Week 8
OCTOBER 25: Jackson ran the scout team during Friday’s practice, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, another sign that he may not play on Sunday. However, the Ravens have leaned into the uncertainty around Jackson’s status this week as a way of interfering with the Bears’ preparation. At 1-5, Baltimore desperately needs a win, so they will take any competitive advantage they can get.
OCTOBER 24: After limping heavily out of a four-game losing streak, the Ravens got very healthy during their bye week. While four expected contributors on the defensive front remain out on injured reserve, the only player in Baltimore with an injury designation heading into the weekend is quarterback Lamar Jackson, and that designation of “questionable” could not be any more appropriate. 
After getting a few injured players back two weeks ago, it was expected that the two they didn’t — Jackson and linebacker Roquan Smith — would be able to return after the bye. On Wednesday, Jackson returned to practice for the first time since injuring his hamstring in late-September, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. ESPN’s Jamison Hensley added that Jackson was a limited participant that day, taking reps behind usual backup Cooper Rush and practice squad quarterback Tyler Huntley.
After another limited practice yesterday, head coach John Harbaugh told the media that Jackson was able to be a full participant today. Despite the full practice also appearing on the team’s injury report, the “questionable” status remained. There was one move the team made today, though, that may hint towards the team’s expectations.
First reported by Zrebiec, the Ravens promoted Huntley from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. We saw something similar happen in San Francisco as the 49ers dealt with an injury to starter Brock Purdy. They had been calling up quarterback Adrian Martinez as a standard gameday practice squad elevation each week to back up the usual backup quarterback Mac Jones.
There was speculation that Purdy may be healthy enough to serve as the team’s third emergency quarterback, but they had yet to decide. A new rule was recently implemented making it so that a team can have three quarterbacks suit up for a football game instead of the previously permitted two. The rule was created after former-backup 49ers quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion after coming in to replace an injured Purdy in the 2022 NFC Championship Game, and Purdy was forced to return to the game.
The new rule made it so that teams could have a third, emergency quarterback suited up to avoid such situations, but it required that the third QB be on the team’s 53-man roster. So, earlier this year, everybody waited to see if Martinez would be simply elevated or signed to the active roster. San Francisco ended up just elevating him that week, ensuring that Purdy would be inactive for that game.
So Huntley’s promotion tells us something about the team’s expectations. If Baltimore knew Jackson wasn’t going to be able to play, they could’ve just used Huntley’s third elevation without sacrificing a spot on the 53-man roster. Bringing him onto the active roster, though, indicates that all three quarterbacks will be able to suit up on Sunday.
There’s still a chance Jackson is made inactive for the game or gets ruled out eventually, but the Ravens have set it up for Jackson to start, with Huntley and Rush being available as backups. In fact, Harbaugh also told the media that Huntley has surpassed Rush as QB2, making Rush’s two-year, $6.2MM contract appear quite large for a third-string passer.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport went on air today saying that it seems like the Ravens are preparing for Jackson to start this weekend, but they want to make it through the next two days before they make any official announcements about the two-time MVP being back. If it’s not Jackson this Sunday, it will be Huntley.
Ravens Expect Lamar Jackson, Roquan Smith Back After Bye
7:48pm: Per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh doubled down on the “hope” that Jackson would be ready to play after the team’s Week 7 bye. He told the media today that “he expects both (Jackson) and (linebacker) Roquan Smith to be back after” the week off.
Baltimore saw left tackle Ronnie Stanley, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, and safety Kyle Hamilton all return to play today after missing the Week 5 massacre. Adding Jackson and Smith, the two players usually designated to communicate with the sideline when healthy, would bring the Ravens back almost to a fully healthy starting line up.
12:58pm: The Ravens are currently in the midst of their second straight game without superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson. The two-time MVP was inactive on Sunday against the Rams because of a hamstring injury. The Ravens have a bye next week, and they’re “hopeful” that Jackson will come back after that, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports.
Baltimore entered the season as a popular Super Bowl pick, but injuries and an uncharacteristically poor defense have helped lead to a dismal 1-4 start. With their defense allowing 400-plus yards and over 35 points a game, it’s imperative for Jackson to return if the Ravens are going to keep pace with the division-leading Steelers (3-1) in the AFC North.
The Ravens figured they had a capable backup to Jackson when they signed former Cowboy Cooper Rush to a two-year contract with $4.2MM in guarantees last offseason. Rush’s first start in Jackson’s place was a disaster, though. He went 14 of 20 for 179 yards and three interceptions in a 44-10 blowout loss to the Texans last Sunday. The Ravens and Rams are still in the first half of their Week 6 matchup as of this writing, but Rush has already tossed another INT.
While Rush has struggled as a passer this season, the 31-year-old has also never been a threat with his legs. It’s the opposite with Jackson, who pairs his excellent passing with all-time great skills as a runner. The 28-year-old ranks first in history in rushing yards among QBs (6,339). Team sources indicated earlier this week that the Ravens don’t expect Jackson to get back on the field until he looks like “his normal, dual-threat self.” It turns out that could be as early as Week 8 against the Bears.
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson Out Until He Can Return To Dual-Threat Nature
The Ravens still have tomorrow to make final injury designations for their Week 6 matchup against the visiting Rams, but their Friday injury report already lists six players with “out” designations, the most notable of which would be star quarterback Lamar Jackson. Unfortunately, it may be a while until he returns to the field. 
According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, team sources have said that “he’s not going to go back out there unless he can be his normal, dual-threat self.” He hasn’t practiced once since injuring his hamstring over a week and a half ago, and depending on the severity, hamstring injuries can take weeks to come back from. There have been reports that Jackson has been rehabbing behind the scenes, getting pool work with the underwater treadmill in the Ravens facility.
Fowler’s report came before the injury report, and he claimed that if Jackson could see the practice field Saturday, there would be a chance of him playing against Los Angeles, but obviously, that’s no longer the case. Instead, the Ravens will either return to Cooper Rush to make his second start in a Ravens jersey, or they’ll return to practice squad passer Tyler Huntley to make his first start in Ravens jersey since 2023.
Likely Rush will be under center to start Sunday. Despite the rough, three-interception performance last weekend, Baltimore paid Rush way too much in free agency to come be the primary backup to just give up on him after one start. And while Huntley has seen success at times as a close fit for Jackson’s gameplan, his effectiveness has waned as team’s get more film on him each year.
On one last note with Jackson, ESPN’s Dan Graziano noted recently that despite Baltimore’s recent efforts to extend key players on expiring deals, there hasn’t been much movement on a new record extension for Jackson. The pressure is mounting to make something happen in that regard as a $75MM cap hit looms on the horizon for the 2026 season.
While one might think this recent injured stretch may give the Ravens the upper hand in negotiations, Jackson’s MVP-level play last year and the massive cap hit lingering as a potential consequence of not finding common ground swing momentum in Jackson’s corner pretty heavily. The two sides have plenty of time to work something out still, but like with their previous contract dispute, this may go down to the wire before seeing an eventual resolution.
Lamar Jackson To Miss Week 5; Ravens QB Facing Multi-Week Absence?
OCTOBER 3: Jackson is one of six players the Ravens have now officially ruled out. Baltimore’s offense will be in Rush’s hands while the team deals with a number of key injuries on defense Sunday. Looking ahead, The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson reports Jackson is currently expected to be out for Week 6 as well.
OCTOBER 1: Jackson’s availability for Sunday’s game is still “in doubt,” per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, but he characterized the star quarterback’s status as “week-to-week,” referencing and countering Tuesday’s report.
The news will offer some hope to fans in Baltimore, but it still feels like Rush will start in Week 5. If Rapoport is correct, however, he could be back in Week 6 as opposed to Week 8 after the Ravens’ bye
SEPTEMBER 30: The Ravens endured another loss to the Chiefs, this one a one-sided defeat that further exposed issues on Baltimore’s leaky defense. The team carried some excuses, however, as its starting defense was down more than half its bodies by game’s end.
A more pressing matter came when Cooper Rush replaced Lamar Jackson during the second half. Jackson suffered an injury to his right hamstring later deemed a strain, according to ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. The superstar quarterback could not have returned to the game if it were competitive, with John Harbaugh saying (via Hensley) there was “no way” his top player could have come back during the 37-20 loss.
Jackson is now viewed as unlikely to be ready for Baltimore’s Week 5 contest. He is expected to sit against the Texans, the Baltimore Sun’s Brian Wacker reports. A two- to three-week absence would be within the realm of possibility, per Wacker. The Ravens face the Rams in Week 6 and have their bye in Week 7. Considering the injuries the Ravens’ defense has sustained, the early bye should prove beneficial.
The Ravens played the Chiefs without Nnamdi Madubuike, Travis Jones and Kyle Van Noy. They then lost Roquan Smith, Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins during the game. Ronnie Stanley also left the Kansas City matchup, one of the more disastrous Ravens regular-season games in recent memory. Madubuike is out for the season, and the Ravens are expected to be without Smith and Humphrey for a bit.
Hamstring injuries regularly sideline players multiple weeks, with some — like George Kittle‘s Week 1 setback — leading to IR placements. We are not there yet with Jackson, and any Ravens hopes Jackson could be back within a four-game span would undoubtedly lead Baltimore to keep its eighth-year QB on the 53-man roster and go week to week here. But any missed time at quarterback will certainly deal a major blow to the Ravens.
Jackson, 28, rebounded from injury-marred 2021 and ’22 seasons by posting back-to-back first-team All-Pro years. The two-time MVP did not miss any games due to injury in 2023 and ’24, rocketing to a higher level as a passer and effectively ensuring himself Hall of Fame induction down the road. But this setback does remind of those the Raven centerpiece suffered earlier this decade.
A sprained ankle in 2021 led to Jackson being shut down. His 2022 setback — a PCL sprain — generated more attention, as the Ravens had hoped the dual-threat dynamo to return; that never came to fruition. Jackson defended himself against criticism he could have played late that season; the Ravens were eliminated in Round 1 of the playoffs with then-backup Tyler Huntley at the controls. Jackson missed 11 games, counting the wild-card loss to the Bengals, from 2021-22.
Despite struggling against the Chiefs once again, Jackson exited Week 4 with an NFL-most 10 touchdown passes this season. The Ravens signed Rush as their backup this offseason, giving the former Cowboys QB2 a two-year, $6.2MM deal. Rush has made 14 career starts, winning nine.
Despite Cowboys trade acquisition Trey Lance needing game reps, Mike McCarthy primarily used Rush when Dak Prescott went down midseason. Rush went 4-4 as Dallas’ starter last season, posting a 12:5 TD-INT ratio with a 60.7% completion rate and just a 6.0 yards-per-attempt figure. As our Nikhil Mehta pointed out in the Ravens’ Offseason In Review piece, Rush marked a deviation from the franchise — one that had primarily stationed mobile QBs behind Jackson since the Joe Flacco trade. Rush will be a departure from that, and the Baltimore offense would naturally look different with the 31-year-old passer replacing Jackson.