The Baltimore Ravens travel to play the Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon in a key Week 18 matchup. The team won’t be able to win the AFC North crown if they win, the Los Angeles Chargers win and win the coin flip after the game. This was a determined by the league on Thursday night and was voted on by the owners on Friday afternoon.
Head coach John Harbaugh started his press conference addressing quarterback Lamar Jackson’s status, which many have been eager to know about ever since the signal caller left Week 13 with an injury. Harbaugh said Jackson and the trainers are working as hard as they can, and while Jackson won’t play in Week 18, the team is hopeful he can play next week.
"Lamar's working as hard as he can. The trainers are working as hard as they can… That's where we're at. He won't be playing in this game, we're hopeful for next week."
Coach Harbaugh on Lamar Jackson's injury status: pic.twitter.com/7IkOXef7kv
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 6, 2023
“I wanted to jump into the injury thing first, might as well get that out of the way. Just wanted to share this with you, kind of really about Lamar [Jackson]’s injury, because I know you guys ask every week, and everybody wants to know. I understand that – completely understand that. I want to know every week; every day you kind of ask and see where we’re at, but there really are no updates on that. That’s the biggest thing. I know that maybe people – fans, and media and everybody – might get a little frustrated about, but it’s just kind of the nature of it. When we have an update, definitely, you’ll have it, but injuries are so hard to predict. That’s why when I get up here sometimes and I’ll refrain from saying how long it will be. You might think it’s going to be some number of weeks, or some number of days, or whatever, but you really don’t know because they [players] all respond differently. Then later, I feel bad because it didn’t turn out to be the number that we originally thought it was going to be. So, then I try to say, ‘Well, I’m really not going to talk about that,’ and kind of sometimes people think, ‘Well, he’s hiding something,’ or whatever. It’s really not. I might be hiding something sometimes, but not in this case. (laughter)The truth is we just really don’t know. I know everybody’s working as hard as they can. Lamar’s working as hard as he can, the trainers are working as hard as they can and [I] can’t wait for him to get back, obviously, just like everybody else. So, that’s where we’re at with that. He won’t be playing in this game, and we’ll be hopeful for next week. We’ll just see where we’re at then, OK?”
With Jackson officially ruled out, backup quarterback Tyler Huntley will most likely get the start on Sunday. However, he’s also nursing a shoulder injury as well as a wrist issue. If Huntley isn’t able to play, then the Ravens would turn to undrafted rookie quarterback Anthony Brown. Getting a win on the road against a good Bengals team was always going to be tough, and Baltimore will need many people to step up in order to make sure they can get the job done.
