Join the huddle. Sign up here for Ravens updates in your inbox.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was a full participant in practice Wednesday for the first time since suffering a high-ankle sprain on Oct. 4, boosting hopes that he’ll be available for Sunday’s showdown against the Buffalo Bills.
Jackson was limited in his return to practice last week and was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, a second straight dispiriting loss for the Ravens (4-3).
But Jackson jogged out to practice Wednesday, and he appeared comfortable in more intensive warmups with athletic trainers during the media viewing period.
Coach Jesse Minter was cagey about Jackson’s practice performance Wednesday, deferring to the injury report when asked whether his workload had increased since last week. He also sidestepped a question about whether he was optimistic that Jackson was “trending in the right direction.”
“I think the more you’re able to do and respond from and feel from certainly raises your optimism,” Minter said. “But again, we’ll kind of see how it goes throughout the week.”
Backup quarterback Tyler Huntley is 1-2 as a starter since replacing Jackson, who hurt his ankle late in the first half of the Ravens’ Week 4 win over the Tennessee Titans. Huntley helped lead a late-game comeback in an overtime road win over the Atlanta Falcons, but he struggled throughout a Week 6 road loss to the Cleveland Browns and couldn’t sustain a strong start in Sunday’s blowout home loss to Cincinnati.
Jackson, one of the NFL’s best players through the season’s opening month, said Friday that he would gauge his mobility and pain levels before deciding whether he felt comfortable returning to action. High-ankle sprains typically take at least a month to rehabilitate.
“I’m just trying to move how I move,” Jackson said Friday. “If I can’t do that, I can’t help my team. I can’t put my team in a situation like that. I feel like I’m doing a disservice then.”
The Ravens will need more than a healthy Jackson to beat Buffalo (5-1), one of the AFC’s Super Bowl favorites. Their run game has struggled amid inconsistent offensive line play, and their defense has been one of the NFL’s worst after halftime this season.
“There are opportunities throughout the year when you’re missing a key guy or whatever for other people to step up, and we’ve had three games now where, at times it has and at times it hasn’t,” Minter said Wednesday. “So it’s everybody. It’s everybody in the building, whether the head coach, the play-callers, the coordinators, the position coaches, the people running the scout team, all the players, the trainers, the strength staff, everybody to do a little bit more to improve and find improvement, and that’s really all we’re after.”
Note: Right guard Vega Ioane, inside linebacker Roquan Smith, and safeties Kyle Hamilton and Jaylinn Hawkins were all sidelined by knee injuries Wednesday. Minter said some players were dealing with “typical after-game things” and that he was optimistic about their recovery.
Ioane, who was knocked out of Sunday’s game in the first quarter, is not expected to play Sunday. But Minter was hopeful that he would not miss much time: “If there’s anybody that can do something crazy and overcome things, he’s got the right mentality.”



Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.