Ravens Thursday Injury Report Includes Major News For Lamar Jackson

The Ravens have been coy in their handling of Lamar Jackson’s ankle injury for a month now.

Since the two-time MVP suffered the injury on a sack from behind at the end of the first half in Week 4, Baltimore’s offense has fallen onto a major funk, and rookie head coach Jesse Minter has walked a verbal minefield about conveying some semblance of the extent of the injury to his paying customers – through the media – but also needing to respect the player’s reputation and make it clear this is a significant setback for him to navigate that.

Ravens public relations has a poor reputation in such matters, throwing a novice head coach into the mix has only exacerbated the messaging issues, and Minter would barely saying anything on Wednesday about his quarterback other than the team would be issuing an injury report – as mandated by the NFL – and Jackson would be listed on it in some capacity. Lesson learned, it seems (be careful who you take counsel from in The Castle, rook; they’ll hide and cower and let you take the fall).

Turns out Jackson practiced in full on Wednesday, the first time he did so since before facing the Titans on Oct. 4, and he did the same on Thursday. The longer this situation played out – it was obvious he was going to miss at least two games from the onset – it became clear that Jackson was going to have to get through a full week of full practices before being activated to return to play. He is checking those boxes now.

Kyle Hamilton, the Ravens best defensive player, returned to practice Thursday as did rookie guard Vega Ioane, who just suffered a knee inury that some reported would be multiple weeks (Minter did not close the door on him playing Sunday) and middle linebcker Roquan Smith was back on the field, too, as all did not take part in any capacity Wednesday.

On To Buffalo

Sep 27, 2026; Rio De Janeiro, BRA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) runs with the ball past Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dee Winters (53) during the game at Maracana Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Should Jackson practice fully on Friday – it’s a limited workday and barring some totally unforeseen circumstance that will be the case – it’s fair to expect he will have no injury designation on Friday’s injury report. He was ruled out on Friday on each of the first two weeks after his injury – which Jackson has described as a “very, very painful” high-ankle sprain. Last week he was listed as questionable and then the team announced on Saturday afternoon that he had been downgraded to out (which raised anew questions about their public handling of this situation all along).

While Ravens rookie offensive coordinator Declan Doyle was being hailed as a “genius” all summer, he was quick to point out himself on Thursday he is only seven games into calling plays and is trying to adjust his processes with one of the worst second-half offenses in the NFL. Jackson is the genius, he covers up the warts on a roster that is 7-14 without him, while wins 70% of the regular-season games he starts. And if this offense rebounds, it’s because the best player in the league returned (and if it doesn’t out late-summer prediction that Doyle is going to end up calling plays from the sidelines and trying to connect better with his players is going to look sage).

How much Doyle is willing to lean into Jackson’s legs to boost a moribund run game will be telling; he’s already riding Derrick Henry at an historic rate for any age 32 RB in NFL history, with diminishing returns. The ability to generate explosive plays will be back – Jackson leads the NFL at 10.1 yards/attempts (no one else is above 8.8) – as backup Snoop Huntley doesn’t average even six yards per pass in his NFL career.

Henry has averaged just 3.4 yards per rush the last four weeks (35th in the NFL). Getting rookie “Joker” Adam Randall (a hybrid RB/TE/H-Back/WR), off Injured Reserve could add wrinkled for Doyle, too. Something has to change in a major way for Baltimore in the second half and this young staff better figure it out quickly. Consider that without Jackson the Ravens have fallen to 31st in second-half scoring, dead-last in third-down conversions in that half and 29th in three-and-out percentage.

Also consider how it came to pass again that Ravens struggling general manager Eric DeCosta (better do something at the deadline, hoss) let Jackson enter a potential walk season without a contract extension after the QB had to dangle on a non-exclusive franchise tag and demand a trade to get a fair-market deal after his rookie deal expired, which Baltimore made him play out.

The Miami Dolphins badly need a quarterback and a superstar to market the team around and an identity and they are loaded with draft capital. I’m just sayin.

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