Two days before the Baltimore Ravens were blown out 36-10 by the Buffalo Bills, losing quarterback Lamar Jackson to yet another injury on the team’s first play from scrimmage, rookie head coach Jesse Minter made a point of saying his club shouldn’t be overly reliant on the two-time league MVP and three-time All-Pro.
“There doesn't need to be like this crutch of Lamar, even though we know how great of a player he is,” Minter said on Friday, Oct. 30 – with the luxury of knowing in that moment that his QB1 was set to play for the first time since suffering an ankle injury on Oct. 4.
But now Minter and the Ravens are likely going to find that Jackson is far more than a crutch – more like the linchpin of this franchise’s Super Bowl hopes. And those
seem all but dashed after he injured the thumb on his passing hand, something the coach admitted Sunday will require surgery, force Jackson onto injured reserve and might ultimately end his season.
“There's no testimony without a test,” Minter said Sunday. “So, we'll do everything in our power to keep rolling, to keep this thing going, to get it back on the right side – again, with whatever that looks like, and whoever that's playing.”
It's been nine years since a team experienced this bad run of injuries at QB like the Ravens.
— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) November 1, 2026
Baltimore is the first team to have 3 QBs throw a pass before halftime of a game since the 2017 Cowboys, per ESPN Research.
Here’s what it looks like without Jackson:
▶ The Ravens are 3-1 with him, and 1-3 without him this season (though Sunday’s loss will officially go on his record since he took the first snap in Buffalo).
▶ Baltimore has 14 touchdowns in the 14 quarters Jackson has played this year, discounting Sunday. The Ravens have six TDs in the 19 quarters without him.
▶ Running back Derrick Henry averaged 104.5 yards from scrimmage in the season’s first four games – mostly with Jackson – and scored seven TDs. Since? It’s been 72.3 yards per game and two end-zone trips.
▶ The last playoff game the franchise won without Jackson was at the end of the 2014 season, nearly three years before he was drafted.
The Ravens likely won't have access to Tyler "Snoop" Huntley, one of the NFL’s more reliable backup quarterbacks, either, after he suffered a turf toe injury against the Bills. Oh yeah, Baltimore is set to host the AFC South-leading Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night, and undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano is the only ambulatory QB on the 53-man roster or practice squad, meaning GM Eric DeCosta will be forced to make at least one roster move and possibly multiple.
“We're going to play Thursday, and it's going to be about us over the next three or four days coming together, giving these guys a really good plan, getting them back mentally and getting them recovered,” said Minter.
“So, it's definitely my job to make sure that we stay together, that we don't point fingers, that we have each other's back, that we believe in the next-man-up mentality – it's what we talked about a lot. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it doesn't. So, we have to really, really just pour into the belief and believe in the guys that we have and move forward.”
But should the Ravens or anyone else believe what Minter is selling?
“We’ve seen it without Lamar in the past, and it hasn’t been pretty,” said NBC analyst and longtime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who had to spend the better part of a decade game-planning for Jackson, on Sunday night’s “Football Night in America” broadcast.
“I hate it for Baltimore but, more importantly, I hate it for football. He’s that dynamic of a player – you don’t replace a guy like that, you pivot, and you lean on other components of your team.”
To that, Tomlin’s colleague, three-time Super Bowl winner Devin McCourty, replied: “Basically, he’s saying stick a fork in them – Baltimore’s done with no Lamar Jackson.”
Worse? This might not merely be a 2026 problem.
If Jackson doesn’t return this season, he will have missed 16 of his past 34 starts. Then comes 2027, the final year he's under contract – and at ridiculously penal financial circumstances to the Ravens. He carries a cap charge of $84.3 million next year, when Baltimore is projected to be overspent by $46 million on its salary cap − most in the league, per Over The Cap. Yet Jackson, who serves as his own agent and marches to the beat of his own negotiating drum, has yet to reach a cap-relieving extension with the team and could decide he wants to play out his deal and test free agency in 2028.
That scenario would put DeCosta, who carefully tiptoes around questions about Jackson’s pact, in quite a bind – potentially forcing him to rely on a player whose availability might be roughly 50% over a two-year period by that point while having to strip assets from his roster in order to become cap-compliant. Of course, DeCosta could also opt to reset at quarterback if he and the organization ultimately conclude that that Jackson is too perilous an investment – at the risk of being the guy who ran the most sublime talent in Ravens history out of Baltimore.
“You never expect anyone to feel sorry for you. Very unforgiving game,” Ravens linebacker and defensive captain Roquan Smith said following Sunday’s loss.
“Regardless of who you are, the game (doesn't) apologize to anyone, nor does it discriminate. Just have to look ourselves in the mirror.”
And though the Ravens surely won't admit it publicly, they probably won’t like the reflection.
All the NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ravens' Lamar Jackson dilemma is likely only beginning | Opinion
