Lamar Jackson practiced for a third straight day on Friday, but the Baltimore Ravens quarterback would not say whether he will play against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. “Right now, I’m heading in the right direction,” Jackson said after practice. “I can’t call it right now, you know. I’ve still got a grace period, so we’ll see, man, hopefully.”
Jackson has missed the last two games with the ankle injury he suffered in the Oct. 4 win over the Tennessee Titans, and this week was the first time he had practiced since. He was limited on Wednesday and Thursday. He also cleared up what kind of injury it is. Asked about a report from Ian Rapoport that it was not a high ankle sprain, Jackson pushed back. “I thought it was a high ankle sprain. So, who said that?” he said. “We can’t go off Rapoport, you know? He’s just reporting. Somebody probably told him that too, though. So, can’t blame him. But nah, man, my staff told me it was a high ankle sprain. So we going with what Adrian told me.” Jackson said Adrian is the Ravens’ head trainer, the first person he went to on the sideline when he got hurt.
“It hurt bad”
Jackson said he did not know what was wrong right away. “I just felt my foot just, I really couldn’t put no pressure on my foot, really,” he said. He went inside for X-rays, and he said the team never gave him a grade for the sprain. “I just noticed the sprain, and it hurt bad. You know, it was very, very, very, very, very painful,” he said. Since then, he said, the work has been to “ice it as much as possible” and “get the swelling down.”
He said the turning point came on Sunday, the day of the 13-10 loss at Cleveland. “I start feeling better, like I said, Sunday,” Jackson said. “So Monday, you know, we came, I tried to run a little bit. I did better than I did a week prior, you know, because I couldn’t run at all a week prior. It was just crazy.”
Walking is no longer the problem, he said. “Walking, I can walk perfectly fine, right? But it’s just like trying to run, you know. Can’t put too much pressure.” He said the swelling has gone down a lot, and he would not rate the pain on a scale of 1 to 10. “It just hurt, man,” he said.
“If I can just go out there and be a statue”
Jackson said he does not need to be 100% to play, but he does need to be able to move the way he normally does. “If I can just go out there and feel the pain a little bit, I can play. But like, I’m restricted. Like, I can’t really do what I do. So I’m not helping nobody,” he said. “If I can just go out there and just be a statue and get hit, no positive. Like, that’s not helping my team at all. I feel like I’m being selfish, because it’s about me at that point, for me to get out there and be hurt. That’s dumb.”
He was just as blunt when he was asked about playing through injuries last season. “That was bad. I felt like that was dumb a little bit, you know,” he said. “I’m hurt and I’m trying to help my team win. But like, I’m not to my full capability, or not even close to it.”
Asked when he will know, he said it could come before Sunday. “If it feel better tomorrow, we’ll know tomorrow, you know?” he said. He also laughed about the people online who have weighed in on his ankle. “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said. “I be wanting to say stuff back, but y’all know they’re twisting to make it seem like I’m mad or something. But I like to have fun, too.”
Minter: “A decision based on him and how he feels”
Head coach Jesse Minter said Jackson “was able to get a pretty good amount of work in” on Friday, though “probably in the limited phase.” He said the call will come from Jackson, the coaches and the medical staff together. “It’s gonna be a decision based on him and how he feels and how effective he feels like he can be, and how we feel like it looks,” Minter said. “He’s super competitive and he wants to play.” He added that Jackson “was able to get in the work that he needed to get in to potentially have a shot to play.”
Minter also announced that outside linebacker Tavius Robinson has a season-ending pectoral injury and that safety Jaylinn Hawkins will miss Sunday’s game with a knee injury. “I feel for him more than anything,” Minter said of Robinson, “just about how hard he works and the type of year he was having.”
Huntley gets ready either way
Tyler Huntley, who has started the last two games, said he is preparing the same way he does every week. “I just got to be ready to play Sunday if that’s the case,” he said. The Ravens scored only 10 points in the loss at Cleveland, and asked how the offense will put up more, Huntley did not dress it up: “Man, we just got to. That’s what we’re going to have to do to win.” He said that if Jackson is ready, “he’s going to play, so there’s no question about that.”
Both quarterbacks praised new center Cam Jurgens, who was a full participant on Wednesday and Thursday after a concussion. “He calling out stuff already. I was shocked,” Jackson said. “He’s a pro, man.” The Ravens, 4-2 and coming off the loss in Cleveland, host the Bengals on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (8 p.m. in Cairo).
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