“Do Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh Even Talk to Each Other?”: Nick Wright

Just when the Kansas City Chiefs decided to look normal for once, the Ravens one-upped them, looking even more in disarray. At the heart of Baltimore’s woeful 6-7 campaign is their quarterback, Lamar Jackson, whose 2025 season has quietly drifted into unfamiliar territory and uncomfortable conversations.

For the first time in his career, Jackson is battling injuries, optics, rhythm, and trust. Over the last stretch of the season, he has played what many around the league now acknowledge as the worst football of his career. The numbers support it as well.

After a hot start that included 10 passing touchdowns through Week 4, Jackson has gone three straight games without accounting for a single touchdown, a drought he had never experienced before. Jackson’s completion percentage has dipped below 60% in four consecutive games, his passer rating has fallen to 100.0 after sitting at an elite 119.6 last year, and he has turned the ball over at a rate not seen since his early seasons.

And to make it worse, layered over this statistical decline is a recurring injury narrative that refuses to just make sense. Jackson missed three games earlier this year with a hamstring issue, but since then has appeared on the practice report with ankle and toe ailments while still suiting up on Sundays.

So, on his latest podcast appearance, analyst Nick Wright rightly questioned whether the quarterback and his head coach are even on the same page anymore.

“Can somebody please report on whether or not Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh even talked to each other? This is the weirdest fu*king story in the league,” Wright said bluntly.

The analyst then pointed out a troubling pattern that has followed Jackson throughout his career: whenever Lamar is injured, the public timelines from the Ravens and from the QB himself never seem to match.

“Every time Lamar has suffered an injury in his career, John Harbaugh has had one timeline about when Lamar is going to play, and Lamar has had a totally different one,” Wright said.

The analyst walked through the history, seasons where fans were told Jackson would return “in a week,” only for the injury to quietly become season-ending. This year followed the same script. After the bye, HC Harbaugh expressed optimism about Lamar returning. The game arrived. Lamar didn’t, before eventually returning, albeit not cleanly.

According to the analyst, what followed was even more alarming. Jackson began missing practice days every week with “random injuries,” while simultaneously playing, in Wright’s words, “the worst football of his career.”

“I think Lamar’s checked out,” he went on to conclude.

As harsh as it may sound, Wright’s statement does cut deep when placed against Jackson’s recent production.

Since returning from the hamstring injury, he has averaged just 197.4 passing yards per game, rushed for only 25 yards per outing, thrown four interceptions, lost two fumbles, and been sacked 12 times in five games. Even his explosiveness seems to have vanished as he doesn’t have a single 20-yard run this season, after recording 55 such runs from 2018 to 2024.

What puts the spotlight even more on Jackson’s woes is the fact that he has always risen above the dysfunction near him. This year, he hasn’t, and that’s what makes Wright’s question resonate, for it suggests a serious misalignment in the Ravens camp.

When the quarterback’s body, the coaching staff’s messaging, and the on-field product stop moving in the same direction, even a top talent like Jackson starts to unravel. So for Baltimore, the focus has to be on ensuring that everyone involved still sees the same timeline. If not, no amount of talent and schemes will help them get out of this rut.