The Baltimore Ravens have had a highly unusual season, due in large part to off-field questions surrounding star quarterback Lamar Jackson. Jackson, who missed three games with a hamstring injury in October, has missed at least one practice in each of the last five weeks, despite playing each week and being reportedly healthy.
NFL analyst Nick Wright took to his show “First Things First” on FS1 yesterday to make a bold claim about the future of the Baltimore Ravens and where to go moving forward amidst a dysfunctional season.
“I have no evidence of this, it’s just what I believe, and I think I have a lot of circumstantial evidence: I think Lamar is ready for a reset,” Wright said.
“Lamar has given us a bunch of signals this year – and he very well might be right – that, yeah, I think this iteration of the Ravens has run it’s course. After [the Steelers loss] in this position, not putting in a full week of practice is actually stunning.”
Jackson hasn’t looked like his past self this year, specifically in the run game. Normally a de facto second running back, he’s been limited to just over 300 yards on the ground in 10 games, less than half of his career low of 695 in his rookie season.
Wright Calls For Change at Head Coach In Baltimore
Though Jackson has been off this season, Wright believes that when push comes to shove, it isn’t Jackson that needs to go, it’s head coach John Harbaugh. Wright believes that Harbaugh’s messaging is falling on flat ears in the Ravens locker room.
“He’s been dealing with injuries, they could easily be like ‘toe, out.’ The fact that they are making it known ‘no he’s healthy enough to practice, we’re giving him a day to rest,’” Wright said. “[Harbaugh] is saying ‘you’ve got to trust the player,’ meanwhile the player is playing the worst football of his life, the coach is on the hot seat, the division is being frittered away, and Lamar is not practicing.”
Jackson is still under contract with Baltimore through the 2027 season. He’s delivered enough outstanding football for the Ravens in his career that he’s earned the benefit of the doubt, but if this trend of poor play continues, it may spell the end of this generation of Baltimore football.
Ravens Set To Take On Joe Burrow and Bengals This Week
Baltimore sits at 6-7 heading into it’s week 15 matchup with the 4-9 Cincinnati Bengals, who ousted them on Thanksgiving two weeks ago.
With the AFC North still very much up for grabs, this is pretty much a must win game for the Ravens. A win gets them to 7-7, and depending on the Pittsburgh Steelers result against the Miami Dolphins, would lead to a tie with Pittsburgh atop the division.
The Bengals aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet though, so they’ll be coming out with something to prove to their fanbase; at the very least, they’ll want to sweep the regular season set with Baltimore.
Kickoff in Cincinnati is set for 1 p.m. with the Ravens favored by 2.5 points.
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