Mark Ingram Jr. injury may give J.K. Dobbins his best opportunity

Mark Ingram Jr.’s ankle injury may give way to J.K. Dobbins finally breaking out.

It may not be all that shocking for Lamar Jackson to lead the Baltimore Ravens in rushing. He is an outstanding dual-threat playmaker for them, but he doesn’t have the bell-cow back to lean on in the rushing attack like he did a season ago with Mark Ingram Jr. Fate would have it Ingram had to leave Sunday’s game vs. the Philadelphia Eagles due to an ankle injury, but he should be fine.

The Fantasy Footballers believe Ingram’s Week 6 ankle injury isn’t a huge deal, especially with the Ravens having a bye in Week 7. He should be back in time for their rivalry game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8. However, could this be the significant enough of an injury to finally allow the Ravens to fully make use of their rookie running back J.K. Dobbins in the second half of 2020?

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Once Ingram left Week 6’s game vs. Philadelphia, both Dobbins and Gus Edwards saw their workload increase. While Edwards led the team with 14 rushing attempts, he only had 26 rushing yards to average 1.9 yards per carry on the day. Although he did score a rushing touchdown, Dobbins was slightly more productive with each touch, averaging 3.1 yards per rushing attempt.

One of these Ravens running backs will come alive in the second half of 2020.

When the Ravens drafted Dobbins out of The Ohio State University in day two of the 2020 NFL Draft, we all knew he was essentially a luxury item for this juggernaut AFC North team. Ingram had one of his best seasons of his NFL career in his first year with the Ravens in 2019. Edwards has been able to show at times he can be trusted to take big carries in the Ravens backfield.

While the nine carries were the most in a game for him in his young NFL career, his 28 yards on the ground were only his third-best rushing performance through the first six weeks. Dobbins has yet to eclipse the 50-yard rushing threshold in a game, and his career-high 61 combined yards came against the awful Houston Texans back in Week 2. Something has to give with him, right?

While the Ravens’ next three matchups aren’t favorable vs. the Steelers, at the Indianapolis Colts and at the New England Patriots, this may force offensive coordinator Greg Roman to be more creative in play design to give a great playmaker like Dobbins to make plays in space. It has not been a banner year for rookie running backs in the league thus far, but Dobbins could change that.