Many overrate the significance of the final preseason game to the roster-building process as the Ravens rarely have more than a spot or two to decide by this point.
If a young player aiming to land a job or a veteran trying to survive another year hasn’t already made a strong case, Friday’s meeting with Washington probably isn’t moving the needle. Of course, established players have already turned the page toward the Sept. 13 opener in Indianapolis after Wednesday’s joint practice with the Commanders, which marked the final meaningful work against an opponent until Week 1.
“I think we got a lot out of it. We were able to try some different things schematically on both sides of the ball,” head coach Jesse Minter said. “I love the work that we got. I’m glad we did it. Now, it’s on to obviously wrapping up this preseason, figuring out the very best 53 players for this particular team at this particular time, and then all eyes forward to Indy.”
While some position groups are all but set ahead of Sunday’s roster cutdown to 53 players, a few questions linger with Friday bringing another data point for general manager Eric DeCosta and Minter.
This marks the 17th all-time preseason meeting between these neighbors with Baltimore enjoying a 12-4 advantage and a 7-1 mark at home. These teams last met in the regular season in 2024 when the Ravens prevailed in a 30-23 final at M&T Bank Stadium.
Unofficial (and speculative) injury report
Teams are not required to put out an injury report like they do for regular-season games, so I’ve offered my best guess of what one would look like if it were to be released ahead of Friday’s game.
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The players estimated to be out should come as little surprise, but the status of some will remain in question. Of course, this list does not include the many healthy starters and veteran backups who will be held out.
Below is the unofficial injury report:
OUT: ILB Teddye Buchanan (knee), ILB Jamon Johnson, LB Carl Jones, DT Nnamdi Madubuike (neck)
DOUBTFUL: WR Zay Flowers, OLB Zion Young
QUESTIONABLE: CB Bilhal Kone, WR Octavian Smith Jr.
Five players to watch Friday night
C Jovaughn Gwyn
With 11 career offensive snaps under his belt, the 6-foot-2, 310-pound Gwyn following offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford from Atlanta to Baltimore was little more than an interesting footnote in March. But with Danny Pinter suffering a season-ending knee injury, Gwyn has seemingly moved to the front of the line for the starting center job, especially after a strong showing in the preseason opener in which he received the lion’s share of snaps. It’s fair to question whether the Ravens are overthinking this decision and overrating what a 2023 seventh-round pick out of South Carolina has done in a practice setting, so we’ll see what Friday brings for an individual some didn’t even expect to make the roster.
C Ethan Pocic
8Despite the 31-year-old having 97 career starts and signing for $3 million plus incentives in mid-July, the Ravens haven’t proceeded as though he’s the favorite to be the Week 1 starter. It’s very notable that the 6-foot-6, 320-pound center is coming back from a torn Achilles tendon sustained last December and may not yet be back to pre-injury form, but Minter repeatedly talking about Pocic getting chances with the first-team offense hasn’t come to fruition. Maybe the Ravens are being extremely coy for some reason, but if the goal was to build cohesiveness and chemistry along the offensive line, Pocic starting the opener would be at least somewhat surprising at this point, which I certainly wouldn’t have said in late July.
OLB Adisa Isaac
Frustration over two lost years of development because of injuries cloud the fact that this was a third-round pick for which Baltimore clearly had high hopes not long ago. It’s very possible the 6-foot-4, 253-pound Penn State product is a sunk cost, and he only carries one more year of team control after 2026 anyway. But Isaac would very likely be claimed off waivers, and the last thing you want to see is him becoming a legitimate contributor elsewhere after writing him off and potentially keeping someone else with less upside. He’s one of the few seemingly playing for a 53-man roster spot on Friday night.
OLB Ethan Burke
The undrafted rookie out of Texas has become an underdog darling of the summer after an impressive showing in the second preseason game in Minnesota. Burke has good size at 6-foot-6 and 267 pounds and has made his share of plays over the course of training camp. Perceived to be battling Isaac for the fifth outside linebacker spot, Burke also had an impressive kickoff coverage rep during Wednesday’s joint practice. Either player will need to be a special-teams contributor when considering their place on the depth chart, so that’s something to watch on Friday night.
QB Joe Fagnano
Considering the rookie free agent out of Connecticut was barely getting third-string practice reps behind Skylar Thompson into the second week of August, even the Ravens have to be surprised by the way Fagnano has played in the preseason. That said, it’s easy to be a prisoner of the moment watching someone compete against backups and players who will be out of the NFL entirely in the coming days. Fagnano certainly looks like someone whose development you’d like to continue, and another standout performance could make it more challenging to sneak him through waivers and to the practice squad. That said, only one quarterback was claimed off waivers after the NFL’s final cutdown day last year.
