After an untimely hamstring injury forced Lamar Jackson to make an early exit from his Week 4 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, his weekly availability has become one of the biggest talking points for football fans on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, those same fans were thrown through an absolute loop this weekend.
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Following the Baltimore Ravens’ Week 7 bye, it was widely speculated that Jackson would be making his return against the Chicago Bears in Week 8, and after the Ravens listed him as a full participant for Friday’s practice, those suspicions seemed to be confirmed. Well, that was until the franchise decided to retroactively change Jackson’s status for Friday’s session nearly 24 hours after listing him as a full participant.
He’s now officially listed as OUT for their Week 8 contest, and that’s, rather naturally, resulted in cries of “foul” from both fans and analysts alike. According to Ian Rapoport, however, Baltimore may not have actually violated any rules by doing so.
“My understanding is that Lamar Jackson was a full participant this week for the Ravens on Friday, but not as you would say… Lamar took scout team reps. He was basically the scout team quarterback on Friday. He took his full allotment of reps, but not as QB1.”
While this likely won’t be of any comfort to those who already wagered on the game as a response to the initial news that Jackson was healthy, it may be reassuring to Baltimore fans who are fearful of their team potentially losing a draft pick.
“According to the rules, it is going to be that they downgraded him, essentially, from full to limited, because the letter of the law says that if he didn’t take his QB1 reps, then he wasn’t a full.”
Rapoport’s explanation does still beg the question of why the Ravens would list Jackson as a full participant if they knew that he wasn’t, but that answer likely won’t matter much on Sunday. Although conveniently enough for the Ravens, Chicago may be just as short-staffed as they are come kickoff time.
Tyrique Stevenson, Kyler Gordon, Braxton Jones, Cole Kmet, and potentially even Jaylon Johnson will all be sidelined for Week 8, and those are just a few of the names worth mentioning for the Bears. Suffice to say, from both an availability and talent standpoint, this may just turn out to be one of the most downtrodden matchups of the entire 2025 regular season.
Thankfully, for both Ravens fans and Jackson, there’s always next week to look forward to, or at least right up until there isn’t.
