Bills Week 8 Prep Suddenly Hinges On One Lamar Jackson Question

Despite a surprising Saturday downgrading, Ravens head coach Jesse Minter remains hopeful for Lamar Jackson's return by Week 8, contingent on health updates and performance evaluations.

The Ravens still don’t know whether Lamar Jackson will be ready for Week 8, but Jesse Minter said the quarterback is pushing hard to get there.

Jackson was trending toward playing against the Bengals before the team ruled him out on Saturday, despite Baltimore being at home. Now the focus shifts to the Bills, and Minter said the next few days will tell the story.

“Yeah, I think, again, Lamar is working his butt off to be back and be out there,” head coach Jesse Minter said in his Monday press conference. “I think he was able to get in a little bit of work, obviously, toward the end of last week.

“So, I think he’ll be in a decent spot. But we’ll know a lot more on Wednesday.”

There had been reporting that the Ravens were “shocked” when Jackson was not available Saturday, but Minter pushed back on that idea, calling it “a little bit” of a mischaracterization.

“But, again, we kind of had Saturday that we would… got a little bit of work in on Friday, come in Saturday and feel it out and see where it’s at and see how it’s going, how it’s feeling, how it responded,” Minter said. “And then what happened, happened.

“I’m not going to speak, really, on the details of anybody’s injury,” Minter added. “So, look, if he’s able to play - that’s healthy enough to play, and play the way that obviously we feel like he needs to play - then he will play.”

Jackson’s status matters even more after Baltimore blew double-digit leads to divisional opponents in each of the last two weeks. A healthy return from its starting quarterback would be a major lift as the Ravens move into the matchup with Buffalo.

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