Sports

While they’ve all been relatively minor, Lamar Jackson’s injury woes are piling up this fall.

The Baltimore Ravens quarterback missed practice on Wednesday due to an apparent ankle injury, putting his status for Sunday’s matchup with the New York Jets in doubt. Specifics of that injury are not yet known. Jackson has now dealt with a hamstring injury, a knee injury last week and now an ankle injury already this season.

Jackson’s worst injury so far has been the hamstring injury he went down with in their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4. That kept him out for three games, the first two of which the team lost and they fell to 1-5. Backup Cooper Rush started in Jackson’s place in both of those games, but he was replaced with third-string quarterback Tyler Huntley late in that second outing.

Jackson still wasn’t ready to return out of their bye week, either, but Huntley ended up leading the Ravens to a 14-point win over the Chicago Bears.

Finally, Jackson returned to the field in a dominant four-touchdown outing against the Miami Dolphins late last month. He’s not missed a game since, and gotten the Ravens back to 5-5 this season.

Though Jackson played last week — he and the Ravens snuck past the Cleveland Browns late, thanks to a huge touchdown run from Mark Andrews in the fourth quarter — he missed their first practice of the week due to knee soreness. 

Jackson ended up returning to practice later in the week last week, and was fine entering the game against the Browns. Jackson went 14-of-25 for 193 yards and threw two interceptions in that 23-16 win.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh described this ankle injury as a similar situation to last week's knee issue.

"It wasn't his best interest to practice today, and we'll see where he's at tomorrow," Harbaugh said.

If Jackson can’t go on Sunday against the Jets, Huntley would presumably get the start. The 27-year-old went 17-of-22 for 186 yards with a touchdown in his last start against the Bears. He’s clearly capable of leading the team to a win, especially considering the state of the Jets — who sit at just 2-8 and are going through a quarterback change themselves, with Tyrod Taylor getting the nod this week over Justin Fields.

But after the Ravens’ 1-5 start, the team has to be just about perfect the rest of the way in order to make what would be a fourth straight playoff appearance later this season. And if Jackson isn’t at full strength, that quest is undoubtedly going to be significantly more difficult, if not impossible.