A concerning start through three games just got more troubling for the Baltimore Ravens.
Baltimore placed two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike on injured injured reserve due to a neck injury, the team announced Saturday, meaning he will miss a minimum of four games.
Fellow defensive lineman Broderick Washington was also put on IR, further thinning the Ravens' depth up front.
Madubuike missed the Ravens' Week 3 loss to the Detroit Lions and just two days later, head coach John Harbaugh announced the DT would be out for the team's Week 4 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs. Most worrisome was that Harbaugh added he was concerned and hadn't been given the green light to divulge if Madubuike was dealing with a long-term injury.
Now, a red light has been given for at least the next month for one of the NFL's top interior defensive linemen.
A 2020 NFL Draft third-round pick of the Ravens, Madubuike became a regular starter in 2021 and in 2023 truly broke out with a 13-sack, Pro Bowl campaign. He went to his second straight Pro Bowl in 2024 and started this season with a sack in each of Baltimore's first two games before he was injured.
For the Ravens, it's a massive blow to a team that was a preseason Super Bowl favorite and is 1-2 following a loss to the Lions in which they gave up 224 rushing yards sans Madubuike.
Veteran John Jenkins and rookie Aeneas Peebles will be looked on to fill in for Madubuike -- and DLs C.J. Okoye and Josh Tupou were elevated from the practice squad as reinforcements against the Chiefs -- but there's really no replacing a player of his ilk on the Ravens' defensive front.
