Lamar Jackson’s hot start even more impressive considering Ravens’ battered roster

With Super Bowl aspirations and generational wealth on the line, Lamar Jackson has delivered the goods during the opening month of the 2022 season. The 2019 MVP has accounted for 12 total touchdowns, more than any other quarterback through three weeks. That performance has lifted the Baltimore Ravens to a 2-1 start and positioned them well as the most difficult stretch of their schedule begins.

For his efforts, Jackson has certainly earned his plaudits. CBS Sports touted him as the “early MVP” on Tuesday. Yahoo Sports expressed similar sentiments, championing Jackson for leading “one of the most explosive offenses through the first three weeks.” The fifth-year quarterback enters October as the odds-on favorite to win Offensive Player of the Year, according to multiple online sports books. Regardless of where one looks, praise for Jackson isn’t difficult to find.

However, while virtually all of the NFL media has acknowledged Jackson’s hot start, he probably hasn’t gotten enough credit for overcoming a Baltimore roster already battered by injuries.

On paper, the Ravens entered 2022 with one of their most balanced rosters in recent years. The offensive line added veteran offensive tackle Morgan Moses to bookend the recovering All-Pro blindside protector Ronnie Stanley with first-round pick Tyler Linderbaum set to take over the pivot. J.K. Dobbins finally seemed on the mend after a lost 2021 season to lead the backfield while the front office reorganized the receiving corps around promising wideout Rashod Bateman. The defense returns a loaded secondary bolstered by first-round selection Kyle Hamilton and a defensive front welcoming back Michael Pierce as its anchor.

Unfortunately for the Ravens, the early weeks have seen the training room filling up with injured players. Twelve members of the team have landed on IR since the regular season began. That number doesn’t include Stanley who has yet to make his 2022 debut and has only appeared in seven games since his breakout 2019 campaign. Attrition has claimed key members of the defense as well with starting corner Kyle Fuller tearing his ACL and Pierce suffering a potentially serious injury this past Sunday against the New England Patriots.

While not the only club battling through a plague of injuries — the Los Angeles Chargers don’t seem much better off at this stage — the undermanned Ravens have put even more pressure on their already overburdened franchise quarterback.

But despite the weight of the world on his shoulders, Jackson has responded with some of the best football of his career. Even with the increased difficulty, the Ravens still seem capable of making a title run thanks to their quarterback’s football heroics. Perhaps that development comes as a surprise to some given the strong competition within the conference, but it shouldn’t. After all, Jackson carried an even more decimated team on his shoulders just last season.

In 2021, Jackson almost singlehandedly brought Baltimore to the postseason. Some might scoff at that notion given the team finished in the AFC North cellar, but that outcome comes with a variety of caveats. The campaign changed irrevocably when, 15 minutes into a Week 14 tilt with the Cleveland Browns, Jackson suffered a severe ankle sprain that knocked him out of the game. The injury sidelined him for the rest of the year, forcing former undrafted free agent Tyler Huntley under center.

Up until that point, the Ravens appeared destined for the playoffs. While the final stretch of the season overshadowed what came earlier, the team held the inside track for the division crown at the time of Jackson’s injury. Baltimore went on to lose every game left on their schedule, including key divisional matchups with the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers.

However, if Jackson stays healthy, little reason exists to suggest the Ravens don’t reach the postseason in some form or fashion. Even without him, the team still nearly made it anyway, needing only a victory over the Steelers (the game ended in overtime) and one other changed outcome (the Miami Dolphins losing to or tying the Patriots) during the final week in order to punch a ticket to the playoffs.

But that entire discussion paints over the most impressive part of Jackson’s impact in 2021: The Ravens had the most injured roster in modern NFL history. According to Football Outsiders’ adjusted games lost — a metric that accounts for games missed by players with time lost by starters weighed more heavily than reserves — Baltimore had the worst score of any club in a database that goes back more than a decade. Even when prorating the total for 16 games rather than 17, no team in the history of the metric lost more to injuries in a single season.

The 2021 Ravens’ list of wounded players includes more names than one can reasonably remember without researching. Exactly 22 players spent at least part of the season on injured reserve with one — part-time starter Tyre Phillips — seeing two separate stints on IR. That figure doesn’t account for every game missed either, as 48 players appeared on the injury report over the course of the year. And, of course, many that did manage to suit up on game day did so at significantly less than 100%.

Yet, despite working without so much of his supporting cast, Jackson had the Ravens on the brink of another AFC North title.

All of which underscores the reality of this year’s iteration of the team: If Jackson stays healthy, Baltimore should make the playoffs and compete for a Super Bowl.

That, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean the Ravens will enter the postseason as the favorites to come out of the AFC, as the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, and Miami Dolphins have each made early claims to that status. Likewise, Baltimore cannot assume Jackson plays a full season, something that no team can take for granted with any quarterback.

But if Jackson stays on the field, the Ravens can get by without all that much else. He has already proven as much.