Pundit Wonders if Lamar Jackson Was Banged Up Before Suffering Hamstring Injury
It's unclear whether Lamar Jackson will be able to practice this week or play Sunday against the Houston Texans after suffering a hamstring injury that forced him out of the Ravens' loss in Kansas City, but The Athletic's Dianna Russini wondered if Jacksonhad already been dealing with an injury.
"I think it's fair to say something is bothering Lamar physically," Russini said on the "Scoop City: Inside the NFL” podcast." "There are just moments in the game, things that we normally see, such an athletic, elite runner, not seem so special. He's still incredible. But that next level, the video game version of him, just didn't seem like it was out there, and I don't know what that is."
Yesterday, Head Coach John Harbaugh said he didn't know exactly when Jackson's hamstring injury happened.
"You can't know for sure," Harbaugh said. "It's probably a little more added up a little bit in there is what I was told, but I can't say. I don't know enough to be able to say in any kind of accurate way."
While it's just speculation on Russini's part, Jackson has had a tendency the past two games to hold onto the ball, trying to make a play in the passing game rather than taking off running. He was sacked seven times by the Detroit Lions in Week 3 and 15 times overall this season. His 13.64 sack percentage is the highest of his career.
It's true that Jackson has been running less this season. He's averaging 5.3 carries and 41.5 rushing yards per game, both career lows. His longest run is 19 yards.
Back on Aug. 20, Jackson left practice early after his foot was stepped on, but X-rays were negative and he returned to practice five days later.
Pundits Remain High on Ravens to Make the Playoffs
The Ravens are one of the biggest stories in the NFL four weeks into the season, but not for a reason they'd want or anyone could have envisioned.
Pundits and oddsmakers crowned the Ravens Super Bowl favorites before the start of the season, but a 1-3 record, a lengthy list of injured starters, and a defense that's last in points allowed have sparked a discussion of whether the Ravens are contenders or pretenders.
Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame deemed the Ravens still contenders, but noted that their status as such is tenuous.
"Baltimore has one of the league's best rosters. And if the Ravens can get healthy, they'll eventually get rolling," Verderame wrote. "That said, they have a challenging three-game stretch at home against the Texans, Rams and Bears before going on the road to face the Dolphins, Vikings and Browns.
"Forgetting the injuries for a moment, Baltimore's biggest issue is its defense. The Ravens are 25th in dropback EPA (0.174) and 29th in EPA per play (0.149) while ranking 31st in yardage and 32nd in points allowed as of Monday morning. If that side of the ball doesn't improve, the Ravens will quickly become pretenders."
ESPN's Rich Eisen said it's too soon to write off the Ravens.
"Let's just say they're 2-4 going into the bye. You tell me if they come out healthy and play like the Ravens have in previous years they can't go on a run?" Eisen said on "The Rich Eisen Show." "They can go on a run and win the division.
"The problem is that if they do advance off of that Wild-Card weekend game at home, they probably go to Kansas City or Buffalo next because they just lost to them both. Can they go in there healthy and beat those teams? They can. The road has gotten tougher through the first four weeks injury-wise, tiebreaker-wise, but the season's not over for them. They're too damn talented for that to be a consideration in my mind just yet."
It's not just pundits who believe better days are ahead for the Ravens. Two anonymous NFL executives told The Athletic’s Mike Sando they believe Baltimore will at least be in the playoffs.
"Look at the schedule they've played," an executive who ranked Kansas City first and Baltimore second entering the season said. "I mean, that's just what it is. They're going to play some lesser teams, and they're going to win those games. I think they'll be fine."
An executive who had the Ravens first and Chiefs second heading into the season said: "I mean, level of concern to make the playoffs? I think they'll make the playoffs. Level of concern to reach preseason expectations of a Super Bowl-contending team? I am worried."
Looking at Ravens' Issues on Offense and Defense and if They're Fixable
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell dissected the reasons for the Ravens' rough start and assessed whether the issues can be fixed. Here are some excerpts:
Injuries have melted the defense
"Nobody could have anticipated that the Ravens would be this beat up on defense so early in the season, but there's a reason they're getting rookies in the lineup so quickly and leaning on players at the end of their careers: This team has had to adjust to a new roster-building paradigm after signing Jackson to a five-year, $260 million deal in 2023. Obviously, the Jackson deal has been great for the Ravens given the two-time MVP's play, but any big quarterback contract is going to impact how a team constructs the rest of its roster."
"In addition, the Ravens have also signed Nnamdi Madubuike, Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton to significant extensions since 2023, with the latter two becoming the highest-paid players at their respective positions. They brought back Ronnie Stanley and have Marlon Humphrey and Mark Andrews playing toward the end of their second contracts. Odafe Oweh's playing out his fifth-year option at $13.2 million. This is a very top-heavy team relative to what the Ravens were working with when Jackson was on his rookie deal or as recently as 2023. When a top-heavy team stays healthy, you typically have a great season. When it suffers injuries, there's not as much to fall back on. And as such, the Ravens haven't been able to flesh out the back half of their roster as much as they might like, with nobody joining them in free agency for more than $5 million."
The offense is inconsistent
"With the Ravens either scoring quickly on an explosive play or struggling to move the ball, the average Baltimore drive consists of only 4.9 plays, tied with Cincinnati for the fewest in the NFL. That puts more pressure on the defense, which has faced a league-high 286 snaps this season. It's too simplistic to say that the added snaps have led to more injuries for the Ravens' defense, but it's undeniable that the workload is leading to more replacement-level players seeing meaningful snaps on the defensive side of the ball.
"The Ravens don't have an exclusively boom-and-bust offense, but they do have a very inconsistent attack right now. There are too many negative plays in the way of fumbles, sacks and runs that don't keep the offense on schedule, leading to difficult third-and-long scenarios. Jackson and his teammates have been capable of the spectacular this year and shown as much, but last season's Ravens were far more consistently impactful on offense."
Can the issues be fixed?
"I think so. Playing lesser competition will help. The Ravens project to face the league's eighth-easiest schedule from here on out, which will go a long way to making their lives easier. Head Coach John Harbaugh suggested after Sunday's loss that none of the injuries [suffered in that game were] season-ending, which means that the Ravens should be able to get their key players back in the weeks to come. Of course, there aren't any guarantees that the guys who are healthy now will stay healthy for the rest of the season.
"Could the Ravens vanquish their division rivals, squeak into the postseason and then beat the best teams in the conference on the road? Worked out just fine for them in 2012, when a 10-6 Ravens team beat the Broncos and Patriots on the road before topping the 49ers in New Orleans for Harbaugh's first Super Bowl as a head coach. I never want to count the Ravens out, but they have to get better – and get healthier – if they want to finally get over their postseason hump."
