Lamar Jackson Could Miss Multiple Games. The Ravens' Season Just Got Very Interesting.

The Ravens survived Sunday. Whether they survive the next few weeks is now an open question. Lamar Jackson — rolled up on a sack late in the first half of Baltimore's 24-18 win over Tennessee — has a sprained ankle, and Tuesday morning brought the news Baltimore was dreading: per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Jackson has only an "outside chance" to play Sunday night in Atlanta and could miss multiple weeks depending on how his rehab goes.

Take the report in two parts, because both matter. The good news: no surgery, and the injury is not considered long-term. The bad news: "multiple weeks" is officially on the table for a 3-1 team with a roster built to win the Super Bowl right now. In Baltimore, those two words hit different. We'll get to why.

How it happened

Jackson went down late in the first half against the Titans, his ankle rolled up underneath him on a sack, and he never came back — missing the entire second half of a game the Ravens had to sweat out. He underwent an MRI on Monday, and Tuesday's reporting filled in the picture: a sprain, an outside chance at best for Week 5, and a timeline that hinges on rehab. If he can't go, Tyler "Snoop" Huntley gets the start — the same Huntley who steadied the ship Sunday, completing 8 of 9 passes for 63 yards with 16 rushing yards to close out the win.

What "outside chance" actually means

Let's translate the Rapoport-ese. "Outside chance" for Sunday night's game in Atlanta is reporter-speak for don't count on it. The expectation, reading between the lines of every version of this report, is that Jackson misses at least Sunday — and then the question becomes how many more. After Atlanta, the Ravens host the Browns on October 18 and the Bengals on October 25. The schedule softens, which is the one silver lining in all of this: if there's a stretch to survive without your franchise quarterback, two home games against the AFC North's second tier is about as gentle as it gets.

But here's why Baltimore is holding its breath. Jackson has been down this road before, and it never ends quickly. A low ankle sprain in 2021 cost him the final four games of the season. A PCL sprain in 2022 cost him the final five games plus the wild-card round. And the franchise's record in games its franchise quarterback has missed as a starter is 6-11 across 17 games. That's not a Huntley problem — it's a there-is-no-replacing-Lamar-Jackson problem.

And Jackson was playing at an MVP level before the injury: 967 passing yards at a 70.8% clip, six touchdowns against one interception, 144 rushing yards and another score on the ground — in three and a half games, per USA Today. That's the player the Ravens might now be without. Let that sink in.

The Huntley question

None of this is to sell Tyler Huntley short. Eleven career starts in this offense, a full second half of live reps on Sunday, and the trust of the locker room — there is no better backup situation in the league for this exact scenario. Huntley won't run the designed-run game the way Jackson does, and the downfield passing game will lean harder on the run game and the defense, but the Ravens have won with him before.

The concern is the matchup. Sunday night is in Atlanta, against a Falcons defense allowing the third-lowest dropback success rate in the NFL, per NBC Sports. And those Falcons just hung 45 points on the Saints on Monday night (we were watching). A backup quarterback walking into that building, in prime time, against a defense playing like that? That's a lot to ask.

The bigger picture

Zoom out and the AFC picture gets wobbly. The Ravens sat seventh in CBS Sports' Week 5 power rankings with Jackson's ankle already described as "a cloud over this team" (full rankings here). The Chiefs — the AFC's other heavyweight — just lost two wide receivers in one afternoon (the latest from Kansas City). October is when seasons get decided, and right now the conference's two best teams are both reaching for the injury report. Our Commanders report shows the backup-quarterback drama isn't limited to Baltimore, either.

The realistic hope in Baltimore: Jackson misses Atlanta, maybe Cleveland, and is back for Cincinnati on October 25 — with the 3-1 start giving the Ravens a cushion to absorb it. The fear: ankles and Lamar Jackson have a history, and history says to buckle up. Practice reports this week will tell the tale. If he's not practicing by Friday, pencil in Snoop for Sunday night — and say a little prayer for the dropback success rate.