'Fingers crossed': New report offers insight on Lamar Jackson's status

After another limited practice on Thursday, head coach John Harbaugh told the media that Jackson was able to be a full participant on Friday. 

Despite the full practice also appearing on the team’s injury report, the “questionable” status remained. There was one move the team made that may hint toward the team’s expectations.

First reported by Zrebiec, the Ravens promoted Huntley from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. We saw something similar happen in San Francisco as the 49ers dealt with an injury to starter Brock Purdy. They had been calling up quarterback Adrian Martinez as a standard gameday practice squad elevation each week to back up the usual backup quarterback Mac Jones.

There was speculation that Purdy may be healthy enough to serve as the team’s third emergency quarterback, but they had yet to decide. A fairly rule was recently implemented making it so that a team can have three quarterbacks suit up for a football instead of the previously permitted two. A game in San Francisco had required an already-injured passer to return to the field of play after his backup also got hurt.

The new rule made it so that teams could have a third quarterback suited up to avoid such situations, but it required that the third QB be on the team’s 53-man roster. So, earlier this year, the NFL world waited to see if Martinez would be simply elevated or signed to the active roster. San Francisco ended up just elevating him that week, ensuring that Purdy would be inactive for that game.

So Huntley’s promotion tells us something about the team’s expectations. If Baltimore knew Jackson wasn’t going to be able to play, they could’ve just used Huntley’s third elevation without sacrificing a spot on the 53-man roster. Bringing him onto the active roster, though, indicates that all three quarterbacks will be able to suit up on Sunday.

There’s still a chance Jackson is made inactive for the game or get ruled out eventually, but the Ravens have set it up for Jackson to start, with Huntley and Rush being available as backups. In fact, Harbaugh also told the media that Huntley has surpassed Rush as QB2, making Rush’s two-year, $6.2M deal appear quite large for a third-string passer.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport went on air saying that it seems like the Ravens are preparing for Jackson to start this weekend, but they want to make it through the next two days before they make any official announcements about the two-time MVP being back. If it’s not Jackson this Sunday, it will be Huntley.