This week saw Lamar Jackson return to the practice field.
Unfortunately for the Baltimore Ravens, Week 8 will not mark Jackson's return to the playing field.
Jackson has been ruled out for the Ravens' game Sunday against the visiting Chicago Bears as he continues to deal with a hamstring injury, the team announced Saturday. Tyler Huntley will get the start in the place of Jackson, who was deemed questionable to play at first.
Jackson practiced with the scout team on Friday, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Saturday, an indication he is a week away from making his return despite initially being listed as full practice participant.
At the same time the Ravens ruled Jackson out, they updated his practice participation from the day before to limited.
"Lamar Jackson was present for and participated fully in our entire Friday practice ahead of Sunday's game against the Bears," the Ravens said in a statement. "Upon further evaluation today and after conferring with the league office, because Lamar didn't take starter reps in practice, we updated our report to reflect his practice participation."
The NFL will look into the Ravens' practice and participation situation surrounding Jackson's status, Rapoport reported. The league reviews any matter involving a change to a player's status.
Regardless, Jackson is planning to make his long-awaited return in Week 9's Thursday night matchup against the Dolphins, per Rapoport.
The struggling Ravens must now continue to solider on without their two-time AP NFL Most Valuable Player. Baltimore has lost four in a row to fall to 1-5, tying for its worst start in franchise history, with its last two losses coming sans Jackson.
The Ravens are 5-12 without Jackson since 2019 when he became the team's bona fide starter from the onset of the season going forward.
In four starts this season, the Ravens franchise quarterback was excellent despite the team going 1-3, completing 71.6% of his passes for a league-best 10.78 yards per attempt, 10 touchdowns and just one interception.
Cooper Rush started in place of Jackson over the past two games, but struggled with just 251 passing yards combined over the starts, zero touchdowns and four interceptions. He was replaced by Huntley in the team's Week 6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Now, Huntley will replace Rush as the Ravens' fill-in for Jackson.
It's a familiar role for Huntley, who owns a 5-9 record as a starter in his career. Five of those starts came for the Miami Dolphins last season, while the rest came for Baltimore in place of Jackson. From 2021-2023, Huntley was 3-6 as a starter and earned a somewhat infamous 2024 Pro Bowl selection despite playing in just six games with four starts.
Though nobody can replace Jackson's dual threat abilities, as evidenced by him being the NFL's standard bearer in career rushing yards for a QB, Huntley's skillset far more resembles Jackson's than Rush's.
Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, only four teams have made the playoffs following 1-5 starts to the season. The Ravens are aiming to be the fifth, but for that rally to the postseason to happen, they'll have to snap a four-game losing streak without Jackson.
The Ravens (1-5) kick off against the visiting Bears (4-2) at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.
