Lamar Jackson’s ankle injury may be trending in the wrong direction for the Ravens.
After Baltimore’s 24-18 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, first-year head coach Jesse Minter sounded like Jackson’s left ankle issue would not sideline him for multiple games. By Tuesday morning, though, the picture looked much less reassuring.
NFL Network/ESPN insider Ian Rapoport reported that Jackson has “only an outside chance to play” in Baltimore’s upcoming “Sunday Night Football” game at the 2-2 Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 11. If Jackson can’t go, Tyler Huntley would likely handle first-team reps in practice this week and start at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Huntley completed 8 of 9 passes for 63 yards with no touchdowns against Tennessee after Jackson went down.
The Falcons have won two straight since Michael Penix Jr. returned to the starting lineup, beating the Green Bay Packers 35-14 in Week 3 and then rolling past the rival New Orleans Saints 45-24 on Monday night. Following Rapoport’s update, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the 3-1 Ravens as 1.5-point road underdogs in Atlanta.
There’s also a growing sense Jackson could miss more than one game. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk previously reported that Jackson was viewed as more week-to-week than day-to-day, and now there appears to be a real chance he sits out Baltimore’s Oct. 18 road game against the suddenly-hot Cleveland Browns, who are 3-1.
Baltimore then hosts the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 25 in Week 7. If the Ravens stumble through the next two weeks, they could be 3-3 by the time that game arrives, and Jackson would have every reason to push to return against Cincinnati.
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What makes the placement hard to square is not just the low ranking itself, but the company the Falcons were kept below after beating those opponents decisively. The panel behind the list is anonymous, which only sharpens the debate around how much weight should still be given to the early-season mess versus what the Falcons look like right now, and whether the latest vote says more about lingering reputation than current reality. [Read more 🡒]