The Ravens endured another loss to the Chiefs, this one a one-sided defeat that further exposed issues on Baltimore’s leaky defense. The team carried some excuses, however, as its starting defense was down more than half its bodies by game’s end.
A more pressing matter came when Cooper Rush replaced Lamar Jackson during the second half. Jackson suffered an injury to his right hamstring later deemed a strain, according to ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. The superstar quarterback could not have returned to the game if it were competitive, with John Harbaugh saying (via Hensley) there was “no way” his top player could have come back during the 37-20 loss.
Jackson is now viewed as unlikely to be ready for Baltimore’s Week 5 contest. He is expected to sit against the Texans, the Baltimore Sun’s Brian Wacker reports. A two- to three-week absence would be within the realm of possibility, per Wacker. The Ravens face the Rams in Week 6 and have their bye in Week 7. Considering the injuries the Ravens’ defense has sustained, the early bye should prove beneficial.
The Ravens played the Chiefs without Nnamdi Madubuike, Travis Jones and Kyle Van Noy. They then lost Roquan Smith, Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins during the game. Ronnie Stanley also left the Kansas City matchup, one of the more disastrous Ravens regular-season games in recent memory. Madubuike is out for the season, and the Ravens are expected to be without Smith and Humphrey for a bit.
Hamstring injuries regularly sideline players multiple weeks, with some — like George Kittle‘s Week 1 setback — leading to IR placements. We are not there yet with Jackson, and any Ravens hopes Jackson could be back within a four-game span would undoubtedly lead Baltimore to keep its eighth-year QB on the 53-man roster and go week to week here. But any missed time at quarterback will certainly deal a major blow to the Ravens.
Jackson, 28, rebounded from injury-marred 2021 and ’22 seasons by posting back-to-back first-team All-Pro years. The two-time MVP did not miss any games due to injury in 2023 and ’24, rocketing to a higher level as a passer and effectively ensuring himself Hall of Fame induction down the road. But this setback does remind of those the Raven centerpiece suffered earlier this decade.
A sprained ankle in 2021 led to Jackson being shut down. His 2022 setback — a PCL sprain — generated more attention, as the Ravens had hoped the dual-threat dynamo to return; that never came to fruition. Jackson defended himself against criticism he could have played late that season; the Ravens were eliminated in Round 1 of the playoffs with then-backup Tyler Huntley at the controls. Jackson missed 11 games, counting the wild-card loss to the Bengals, from 2021-22.
Despite struggling against the Chiefs once again, Jackson exited Week 4 with an NFL-most 10 touchdown passes this season. The Ravens signed Rush as their backup this offseason, giving the former Cowboys QB2 a two-year, $6.2MM deal. Rush has made 14 career starts, winning nine.
Despite Cowboys trade acquisition Trey Lance needing game reps, Mike McCarthy primarily used Rush when Dak Prescott went down midseason. Rush went 4-4 as Dallas’ starter last season, posting a 12:5 TD-INT ratio with a 60.7% completion rate and just a 6.0 yards-per-attempt figure. As our Nikhil Mehta pointed out in the Ravens’ Offseason In Review piece, Rush marked a deviation from the franchise — one that had primarily stationed mobile QBs behind Jackson since the Joe Flacco trade. Rush will be a departure from that, and the Baltimore offense would naturally look different with the 31-year-old passer replacing Jackson.