The Baltimore Ravens made a run to the AFC Divisional Round last season thanks to a rushing attack headlined by Derrick Henry, and what many thought should've been an MVP-level campaign from Lamar Jackson. Jackson is one of the most explosive players in the NFL and a first-team All-Pro, even though he lost out on his second straight Most Valuable Player to Josh Allen. The Ravens are reliant on Jackson, but perhaps to a fault.
Their defense took a step back by their standards, finish near the tail end of the top-10 in 2024-25. Their backup quarterback is Cooper Rush – a player with starting experience in Dallas who employs a much different style than Jackson. At wide receiver, the Ravens are relying on Rashod Bateman and what's left of DeAndre Hopkins' career (and it's not much).
Ravens QB | Player name |
|---|---|
QB1 | Lamar Jackson |
QB2 | Cooper Rush |
QB3 | Devin Leary |
This is no secret. The Ravens are built around Jackson, just as many contending teams are built around their star quarterbacks. Jackson is paid handsomely because of that fact. However, that also means any long-term injury to Jackson would essentially eliminate Baltimore from postseason contention in a crowded AFC North.
Lamar Jackson injured at Ravens practice
The Ravens flirted with that reality on Wednesday afternoon, when Jackson suffered an injury scare at practice. Thankfully, Jackson is fine – his teammate reportedly stepped on his foot – though Adam Schefter reported that he was flexing his wrist. The expectation is that Jackson will be ready to go for Week 1 because why wouldn't he be?
If Jackson were forced to miss any time, the Ravens would quickly turn to Rush. The two are vastly different players, which differs from John Harbaugh's past strategy of employing a backup with a similar style, such as Tyler Huntley or Josh Johnson. Neither of those quarterbacks is productive enough to win meaningful games for the Ravens, either, which is the entire point of this article.
The Ravens are not built like the Chiefs, for example, and don't offer the same infrastructure for a backup to run the offense as Jackson does. The flexibility of Andy Reid's scheme means he can turn to Chad Henne, Carson Wentz or even Gardner Minshew in a moment of weakness should Patrick Mahomes suffer an injury. If Jackson goes down, the Ravens become utterly predictable.
What would the Ravens look like without Lamar Jackson on the field?
If Jackson were forced to miss significant time – and again, that is not the case from Wednesday's scare – the Ravens best chance at success would be to revert to a scheme similar to that of the last Tennessee Titans postseason teams. Those teams ran Henry into the ground, relying on the likelihood that their bruising back would eventually break down the opposing defense in the waning moments of the game.
The good news is that system worked for the Titans. They made the postseason and won the AFC South in 2020 and 2021, led by Henry, Ryan Tannehill and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. The bad news is the league has changed since then. Henry is older, Smith is in Pittsburgh and Tannehill is without a job. Those Titans teams also notoriously failed to reach the Super Bowl, losing to more complete contenders along the way.
Most NFL teams are one injury away from disaster. The same cannot be said about Baltimore – they'd still win some games without Jackson. However, they cannot beat the Chiefs, or the Bills for that matter, with him on the field. If he were ever forced to miss time late in the year, they'd be screwed.