The Ravens got their quarterback back on the field, but had to add two players to the injury report.
After a rest day on Wednesday, Lamar Jackson was a full participant in Thursday’s session, confirming he’s on track to start against the Bengals on Sunday.
But tight end Mark Andrews (glute) and receiver Rashod Bateman (ankle) were both added to the report on Thursday.
For both, Friday’s participation level may be a key indicator of their Sunday availability.
Andrews is second on the team with 38 catches, 341 yards, and leads Baltimore this season with five touchdowns.
Bateman has 18 catches for 217 yards with two TDs in 11 games.
Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie (shoulder) was upgraded to a full participant after he was absent from Wednesday’s practice. Running back Keaton Mitchell (knee), outside linebacker Tavius Robinson (foot), and cornerback Nate Wiggins (foot) were all upgraded from limited to full.
Safety Ar’Darius Washington (Achilles) remained full.
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Bengals receiver Tee Higgins continues to make his way through concussion protocol and was a limited participant in Thursday’s practice.
Higgins returned to action last week after missing the Week 13 win over the Ravens while in concussion protocol. But after taking some significant hits in the loss to the Bills, Higgins again reported having concussion-like symptoms.
In 12 games this season, Higgins has 46 receptions for 667 yards with a team-leading nine touchdowns.
Notably as he returns from injured reserve, defensive end Shemar Stewart (knee) was again a full participant in practice on Thursday after receiving the same designation on Wednesday.
Safety PJ Jules (ankle) did not practice for the second consecutive day. Defensive end Joseph Ossai (shin) and linebacker Shaka Heyward (fibula) remained full participants.
As expected, Lamar Jackson is back on the practice field.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, Jackson is practicing on Thursday after he wasn’t on the field for Wednesday’s session.
While Jackson has been listed with various lower-body injuries during the second half of the season, he received a rest day this week.
At this point, Jackson is expected to play Sunday’s game against the Bengals.
In 10 games this season, Jackson has completed 63.4 percent of his passes for 2,060 yards with 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s also rushed for 307 yards with two TDs.
Defensive lineman Travis Jones won’t be leaving the Ravens in the offseason.
Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com reported on Thursday that Jones has agreed to a three-year extension with the team and the Ravens announced the deal a short time later. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the deal is worth $40.5 million.
Jones joined the Ravens as a third-round pick in 2022 and is in the final year of the contract he signed as a rookie. He was a reserve for his first two seasons, but has started 27 games over the last two seasons and all 12 games he has played this year.
Jones has 136 tackles, five sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery over his entire run in Baltimore.
The NFL has announced two Saturday games for the Week 17 schedule.
On Saturday, December 27, the Texans will play the Chargers at 4:30 p.m. ET on NFL Network. Then the Ravens will play the Packers at 8 p.m. ET on Peacock.
The NFL uses flexible scheduling to put big games in broadcast windows that everyone can watch. The league announced when the schedule came out during the offseason that there would be games on Saturday, December 27, but it did not announce at the time which games would be played on that date. Now we know it’s Texans-Chargers and Ravens-Packers, two games featuring four teams in playoff contention.
The league will also play two games on the final Saturday of the regular season, January 3. Those games may not be announced until six days in advance.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has been listed with a variety of injuries when he missed practice in recent weeks, but none of them were cited as the reason he was off the field on Wednesday.
The team’s injury lists rest as the reason why Jackson did not participate. He has been listed with knee, ankle, and toe injuries since returning from a three-game absence due to a hamstring injury.
Jackson has not missed any games despite missing practices the last four weeks.
Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie (shoulder) was also out of practice on Wednesday. Running back Keaton Mitchell (knee), linebacker Tavius Robinson (foot), and cornerback Nate Wiggins (foot) were limited participants. Safety Ar’Darius Washington (Achilles) was a full participant.
Neither Robinson nor Washington is currently on the 53-man roster for Baltimore, so they’ll need to be activated to play against the Bengals this week.
Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is back in concussion protocol, but he had a limited practice on Wednesday. That gives him a chance to be cleared in time for Sunday’s game against the Ravens.
Higgins missed Week 13 with a concussion and then hit his head on the turf multiple times in Week 14.
He has 46 receptions for 667 yards and nine touchdowns in 12 games.
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson (hip/pelvis) did not participate in Wednesday’s session as he underwent season-ending core muscle surgery. Fellow defensive end, Shemar Stewart, looks like he’s ready to return from his knee injury as the rookie, who is on injured reserve, had a full practice.
Safety PJ Jules (ankle) did not practice.
Those were the only four players on the roster not to have full participation.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has missed a day of practice in each of the last four weeks and that streak continues this week.
Reporters at the open portion of Ravens practice noted that Jackson is not on the field with the rest of the team. Jackson has not missed any game action despite the missed practices.
It is not clear what physical issue will be listed as the reason for Jackson’s absence. He has been listed with ankle, toe, and knee injuries in recent weeks and he also missed three games with a hamstring injury earlier this season. The team’s injury report will bring word on the reason for his inactivity on Wednesday.
The Ravens fell behind in the AFC North with last Sunday’s loss to the Steelers and will try to improve their chances of winning the division in Cincinnati this weekend.
There’s a common pattern when it comes to bad calls in NFL officiating. The team that believes it was hosed complains. The team that was aided by the error stands silent.
On Sunday in Batimore, a pair of fourth-quarter plays introduced renewed confusion into the catch rule. Both negatively impacted the Ravens. Both helped the Steelers salvage a much-needed win.
The Ravens understandably were upset. The Steelers have been understandably quiet.
“You know, it’s always been debatable,” coach Mike Tomlin told reporters on Tuesday regarding the ruling that wiped out Isaiah Likely’s go-ahead touchdown with 2:47 to play. “It seems like — I’ve just learned to kind of move on, to be quite honest with you. I moved on from Jesse James, for example. I don’t even know what year that was. [Editor’s note: 2017.] There are going to be controversial calls in big games. I think I always focus my energy on making enough plays to minimize that in terms of determining the outcome of the game. That’s why you won’t hear me calling New York postgame for explanations and things of that nature. You guys asked me that, maybe earlier in the year regarding something. It’s not going to change the outcome. I just work to keep moving, and I just like to put together a comprehensive enough plan and make enough plays, where the game’s outcome doesn’t hinge on one play or a couple of plays.”
But it still can. All the preparation and effort can go out the window, thanks to one — or two — bad calls.
So, given the replay ruling that Aaron Rodgers made a catch (when he apparently didn’t) and that Isaiah Likely didn’t make a catch (when he apparently did), does Tomlin understand the current catch rule?
“I do,” Tomlin said. “I just think that I just think that football is so bang-bang and exciting. I think that’s why our fans love it. It’s a difficult game to play because of the speed. It’s a difficult game to officiate. I think as a collective, we have some things in place that kind of, you know, protect us all in an effort to get things right. Ruling that catch a touchdown makes it automatically reviewable, where I don’t have to decide to challenge, etc. And so there’s a lot of things in place, interrelated variables relative to that discussion.”
The more likely reality is that Tomlin isn’t questioning the rulings because they helped his team retake control of the AFC North. And his handling of the situation isn’t surprising. That’s what teams do when a bad call for the opponent creates a good outcome.
But, as Chris Simms said on Wednesday’s PFT Live, it would be refreshing — and useful — for the team that benefitted from a bad call to call it what it was. As to the Rodgers catch, the rule regarding maintaining possession through the act of going to the ground was ignored. As to the Likely non-catch, the rule regarding acts common to the game other than taking a third step with possession (extending the ball, warding off an opponent) was disregarded.
As to both plays, the replay standard was misapplied.
Here’s the reality for Tomlin and the Steelers. The same uncertainty that the league office has now reintroduced into the process of deciding whether a catch was or wasn’t made could sting the Steelers, at some point.
Tomlin’s overall approach to bad calls is extremely pragmatic. However, he can both accept the outcome of a given ruling while questioning its accuracy — or admitting its inaccuracy.
Given the two plays, everyone expected Ravens coach John Harbaugh to have a gripe. No one expected Tomlin to say, “You know, the rule wasn’t properly applied.”
If he had, that would have created real momentum to get the catch rule cleaned up, quickly. Because the end result is that, years after the NFL supposedly fixed the catch rule, it’s broken all over again.
The previously settled catch rule has once again descended into full uncertainty and borderline madness, after the league office overturned Sunday’s ruling on the field that Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely completed the process of scoring what should have been a fourth-quarter, go-ahead touchdown.
On Monday night, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford — a constant presence in the NFL since 2009 — commented on the various shifts and changes to the catch rule, while also lamenting the periodic absence of common sense.
“Since I’ve been in for 17 years now, I feel like the rules changed every third or fourth year,” Stafford said on the SiriusXM Let’s Go! podcast. “You look at the Ravens game against the Steelers and Isaiah Likely’s play and at the end of the game and is it a touchdown? Is it not? Sure felt like one. Sure looked like one in my eyes.”
Stafford expressed sympathy for the officials, who are required to see things in real time and make quick decisions.
“I’m sure they’re getting help from New York,” Stafford acknowledged.
But here’s the point. As to the two controversial (and irreconcilable) catch/no-catch decisions from Steelers-Ravens, New York overturned seemingly correct rulings made by the on-field officials. “Clear and obvious” has quietly and systematically taken a back seat to someone (good luck figuring out who it is) replacing their assessment via replay review for the snap judgment of the officials, without giving those decisions the broad deference that the rules require.
Put simply, the league office has gone rogue. It’s misapplying the replay standard. And, for whatever reason, it’s ignoring key elements of the catch rule. As to Likely, the review process disregarded the multiple ways he could have satisfied the process by performing an act common to the game and treated the absence of a third step as dispositive. As to the Aaron Rodgers non-catch, the review process didn’t consider the requirement that a player going to the ground must keep possession until he lands.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow as a player because sometimes it may not say it in the rule book or exactly show you, but man, you know it as a player,” Stafford said. “Hey, I caught that ball, or I didn’t catch that ball. Or this was a fumble or it wasn’t. And to have that overturned and cost your team possibly a chance at the playoffs or whatever it is. . . . I wish sometimes common sense would override the rule a little bit.”
We’d settle for the rules being applied as written. As written, the rules codify common sense. As interpreted by the replay process on Sunday, the league office proved the age-old maxim that common sense ain’t.
