Ravens play it safe with Jackson, sitting him against Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA — With their offensive line banged up and two days of productive joint practices under their belts, the Ravens chose to play it safe with Lamar Jackson in the third preseason game.
The second-year quarterback didn’t play against Philadelphia Thursday night, meaning the next time we’ll see Jackson will be in the season opener at Miami on Sept. 8. Head coach John Harbaugh had previously indicated Jackson would play a similar number of snaps to what he saw in the first two preseason games — 16 against Jacksonville and 22 against Green Bay — before left tackle Ronnie Stanley (left ankle) and left guard Jermaine Eluemunor (undisclosed) were injured during Monday’s practice with the Eagles, circumstances that likely made the coaching staff reassess its plans for an exhibition game.
The Ravens had already decided to hold out seven-time Pro Bowl right guard Marshal Yanda (foot) until the season opener, meaning three-fifths of the projected starting offensive line didn’t play Thursday.
“I don’t want to really touch on any reasons,” said Harbaugh about not playing Jackson. “It’s not like he has a major injury or anything like that if that’s what you’re thinking. There’s a lot of reasons for doing stuff like that. We didn’t play Ronnie; we didn’t play a number of guys on offense. … We sat all those guys for various reasons.”
Jackson finishes his preseason completing 10 of 16 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown pass and rushing two times for 14 yards.
The Ravens took a similar approach last summer by sitting out former starting quarterback Joe Flacco for the penultimate preseason game when three starters on the offensive line weren’t playing and the team had also completed two sets of joint practices. The third preseason game has long been considered the “dress rehearsal” for the regular season, but Baltimore has now rested multiple veteran starters in that contest for each of the last two summers.
Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz also sat out Thursday’s game and has yet to play in the preseason.
Below are the players who didn’t suit up for the third preseason game:
QB Lamar Jackson
QB Robert Griffin III
WR Seth Roberts
WR Willie Snead
RB Mark Ingram
RB Kenneth Dixon
RB Gus Edwards
G Marshal Yanda
OT Ronnie Stanley
G Jermaine Eluemunor
OT Greg Senat
OL Randin Crecelius
DT Brandon Williams
CB Tavon Young
CB Iman Marshall
OLB Jaylon Ferguson
ILB Chris Board
DT Gerald Willis