There\u2019s no uncertainty as to whether the Ravens need quarterback Lamar Jackson. There\u2019s plenty of uncertainty as to when he\u2019ll be able to play.<\/p>\n
With him, they\u2019re 3-1. Without him, they\u2019re 1-2. With losses to the Browns and Bengals in the past eight days, the Ravens have started 0-2 in the AFC North for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n
Jackson made it clear on Friday that he\u2019s dealing with a high-ankle sprain, suffered in Week 4 against the Titans. He said at the time, as to the possibility of playing on Sunday against Cincinnati, \u201cRight now, I\u2019m heading in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
One day later, the Ravens downgraded Jackson from questionable to out.<\/p>\n
With a Sunday trip to Buffalo coming, followed by a short-week visit from the Jaguars, Jackson\u2019s return becomes critical. Absent Jackson, Baltimore\u2019s 4-3 record could sink to 4-5 by next Friday.<\/p>\n
So the question of the week in Baltimore becomes whether Jackson will play against Josh Allen and the Bills. As mentioned on Sunday\u2019s Football Night in America, it\u2019s unknown within the building whether he\u2019ll be able to return on Sunday \u2014 and any effort to predict when he\u2019ll be able to play is a guess.<\/p>\n
Jackson made it clear during his Friday press conference that it\u2019s an issue of pain tolerance, and that the ankle sprain is keeping him from being as mobile as he needs to be. That\u2019s no surprise. A high-ankle sprain takes more time to heal than other types of sprains. He explained that he doesn\u2019t want to play if doing so would potentially hurt the team.<\/p>\n
The challenge this week for the Ravens will be to get the eventual starter ready for the game. If Jackson is listed as a \u201cfull\u201d participant on Wednesday, Thursday, and\/or Friday, it will mean he has taken 100 percent of his normal first-team reps. Which also will mean that, if he doesn\u2019t play, backup Tyler Huntley won\u2019t be getting the first-team reps in preparation for Buffalo.<\/p>\n
With or without Jackson, the next two games become critical to Baltimore\u2019s season. Win both, and they\u2019re right on track for reaching their goal. Lose both, and it could be another season without a ticket to the postseason party.<\/p>\n
The chances of going 2-0, and not 0-2, will be much greater if Jackson is able to play. It\u2019s something that we\u2019ll find out as the current week unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no uncertainty as to whether the Ravens need quarterback Lamar Jackson. There\u2019s plenty of uncertainty as to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-895620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}