No one outside of their locker room believes in them, really. And certainly without Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens are hopeless in January but the rest of the team and defense has managed enough victories and improvement against recent less-than-playoff competition to flash a chance.
And that’s all you want in the NFL is a playoff ticket in the New Year, right? That’s all the fans should expect.
And, well, a healthy quarterback to make it to the field to help you win a Super Bowl.
One thing that won’t happen in Cincinnati next weekend is the elimination of the Baltimore Ravens. The purple ticket to the tournament has been punched. I’m not sure that’s going to mean a whole lot to the antsy, dwindling and doubting fan base if they don’t find a way to win a football game on the weekend of January 14th and flash something better than we’ve seen over the past three months on the Divisional weekend of January 21st.
That kind of success doesn’t feel particularly realistic at the moment but, hey, there’s always a puncher’s chance.
I am no longer around the team – by their design, and certainly not my will as a reporter after 26 years – but there’s all sorts of weird purple smoke billowing in regard to Lamar Jackson, his contract, his availability, his ability to get on the practice field and his availability to play in two weeks when winning is the only deodorizer for all the previous sins for all 53 men on the roster. All of this New Year uncertainty certainly seems less than ideal for head coach John Harbaugh, having to answer timeline questions from legitimate reporters about the fate of his season when his quarterback isn’t ready to play.
Last year, they just lied to us every week until it was clear Lamar Jackson was not coming back. This year? Who knows? We know he isn’t on the field right now.
The Ball Coach isn’t discussing anyone who isn’t practicing. That’s not part of the narrative. But somehow the Baltimore Ravens social media crew, which is a massive cheerleading and sharp marketing front for the operation, didn’t put Lamar Jackson on the team Christmas card this week.
It’s bizarre.
Is this a more serious PCL injury that is lingering? Or an injury and a holdout? Or a negotiation? Or does anyone who seriously watches the game believe that No. 8 will magically appear on Sunday night against Pittsburgh or perhaps next week in Cincinnati with the division on the line that will make it all go away with two wins in the coming weeks and the Ravens will still be playing football well into January as a true contender?
Las Vegas doesn’t believe. The Ravens went as low as 28-1 to win the Super Bowl during the holidays.
Will Lamar Jackson, who has been bet against most of his professional life and thrives on that energy and the fire and passion to prove that he is not a running back, come back to make them all eat purple crow over the next six weeks and bring that parade he famously promised to Baltimore?
There aren’t a lot of people who believe ‘dat right now.
For lots of reasons.
But if Lamar Jackson can go win two or three games this month, he’ll change his legacy and his pending contract with whomever wants to guarantee him the most amount of money and/or the Ravens the most amount of draft picks.
Lamar Jackson is 45-16 as the starting quarterback of the Ravens.
If Jackson never steps on the field again with the Baltimore Ravens – and some folks at the end of the bar believe that is a real possibility – he’ll get paid a lot of money next year by someone else in Steve Bisciotti’s billionaire clubhouse. Rest assured, Jimmy Haslam isn’t sorry he signed Deshaun Watson when he’s on the field every Sunday. And Jim Irsay and Daniel Snyder wish they had him. So do a dozen other franchises like Tampa, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, etc. If you’ve watched the NFL recently, you’ll see that a quarterback the caliber of Lamar Jackson will be in high demand in the offseason if the Ravens don’t simply tag him and live another year with the best quarterback they’ll find in the offseason. And if he really doesn’t want to be in Baltimore anymore, there would be no shortage of suitors for No. 8, whether he plays this month or not – successfully or not.
Winning the Super Bowl would be the icing, not the cake.
Never mind a championship here next month, will there be a kumbaya contractually between Eric DeCosta and the Baltimore Ravens’ superstar quarterback and for him to feel the love and his value, which is easily borne out by simply watching John Harbaugh and the men of purple try to win NFL games without him?
It feels a whole lot messier than any “10-5 and we qualified for the playoffs before Christmas morning” version of this franchise’s history that I can identify. The ease of schedule. The unprecedented blowing of double-digit leads every other week against good teams. Then, the injuries and loss of Lamar and state of purple doubt that creeps in when you aren’t playing championship caliber football during the holidays.
And we all know, deep down, that all of this is Greg Roman’s fault!
I kid, but he’s the one who will lose his job and not get a $200 million contract in the offseason.
At this point, a Purple Reign III run here would be a helluva fairy tale.
As for what happens after this season ends and Roman moves on?
Look, it’s one thing for Lamar to have a “cash feud” about his value and guarantees with the powers-that-be and money men in The Castle – I’m currently in my own one-way battle with these same mostly dishonorable men as a media maven – it’s quite another for the likes of Shannon Sharpe, Ed Reed (aside from the Stephen A. Smith screaming types) and other prominent NFL legends to be backing a player representing himself in this contract battle with public advice, pronouncements and wisdom that all say the same thing:
“They don’t respect you, Lamar. And they’re not giving you what you need to win!”
And then piling on by having the media audacity to mention the lack of skill position players around him to win in a crowded AFC playoff field with the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen waiting to say hello every weekend this month throwing to real receivers in real patterns with thoughts of the forward pass being mandatory.
But the quarterback – in any of these cities including Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts and Minnesota with Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott with all of that weight in Dallas and lots of other places with quarterbacks who do not have Super Bowl rings – needs to be healthy and needs to get on the field and win football games this month, no matter who is on the line of scrimmage when the whistle blows.
My Super Bowl champion buddy Mike Flynn called it “nut cut” time back in the days of the original Purple Reign.
Make no mistake about it, this is a money month for Lamar Jackson. But if he isn’t healthy and he can’t play at 100% and the team can’t win with him, it sure doesn’t bode well for the Baltimore Ravens signing him for $232 million and one cent of guaranteed money.
I will write at length during the lengthy offseason in regard to how keeping people like me out doesn’t really benefit them when other less-than-honorable “media sources” are reporting all sorts of trash on the internet. And if they had real leadership on the business and community side in Owings Mills, they’d be dramatically concerned about the stadium being empty last week and the lack of demand in general for going to a game when the team is winning.
I know it was cold as hell last week but not many cared enough to go. And it was Christmas Eve. And the Falcons. But I’ve been around long enough to know that it wasn’t always this way. The community priority on the Ravens is less than enthusiastic because I remember when the city was painted purple by its citizens around this time of the year, anytime a playoff game was imminent.
Wildcard playoff tickets are now on sale on the team’s website for $119. They are readily available.
The team is 10-5 and the Pittsburgh Steelers are stumbling into town. The Ravens can eliminate them and root for Buffalo on Monday night.
This should feel different than it does.
It always did before.
