The Baltimore Ravens welcome the Buffalo Bills to town this Sunday afternoon. As many have already stated, it’s a travesty that the Lamar Jackson-Josh Allen matchup is not being featured in primetime but perhaps they’ll be a Jackson-Allen II sometime in January. Either way, the upcoming contest has the potential to be a display of offensive fireworks, however, Mother Nature and the remnants of Hurricane Ian may other plans.
Here’s a few things to chew on as we look forward to this Sunday:
- Ronnie Stanley spoke the media for the first time in forever this week. During his interview time, Stanley revealed that he had another major procedure on his “lower leg” and that it was unrelated to the original injury. Also, Stanley said that he’s been on the same page with the organization throughout his rehab process, which, to me, puts any talk of him being “soft” or not wanting to play to rest. Sometimes, it’s beneficial to implement common sense when assessing a situation……a 320 pound man that is expected to stand up against other 275-300 pound men 60 plus times a week on 17 (or more) occasions needs to have a stable base. Lest we forget that a bad toe ended the career of Jonathan Ogden, a top 5 all time left tackle. Between Stanley’s remarks to the media and what has been a successful week of practice thus far, we’re getting tantalizingly close to putting all of the speculation and doubt to bed and finally seeing the All Pro left tackle return to live action.
- Almost every day, there’s commentary from pundits, current players etc. about Lamar Jackson’s contract extension or lack thereof. The one opinion that seems to be widely held is that the Ravens essentially low balled Jackson, mainly due to what the guaranteed money was in the rumored deal (roughly $133 million). However, the total value of the offer was $250 million over 5 years for an average annual value of $50 million a year. So if Lamar is the starting quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens for the next 5 years, he earns every penny of the contract. This is how it works for every other player in the NFL not named Deshaun Watson. Should the Ravens organization be required to follow the unprecedented action of the Cleveland Browns by awarding a fully guaranteed contract? Or should the Ravens do everything they can to get a player they value signed and do so within the parameters that they see fit for their organization? On the other hand, Lamar Jackson is handling the negotiations to get the contract he deserves, which is perfectly within his purview. To be quite frank, I don’t love the way the NFL structures contracts for players but this salary system has been agreed to by the NFLPA. If the union wants to fight for guaranteed contracts, it should do so during the next CBA negotiations and not put any pressure on Lamar Jackson to be some kind of Curt Flood-esque test case. At the end of the day, the Ravens need Lamar Jackson under center for the foreseeable future; not just for what he means on the field but for what he means to the fan base. My sincere hope is that an agreement can be reached.
- In a non Ravens related note, the Tua Tagovailoa hit and aftermath was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. The fact that Tua was able to fly home with the Dolphins last night is remarkable. I can’t help but wonder if he ever plays again. With that said, one can’t help but tie last night’s situation to what occurred on Sunday vs the Bills when Tagovailoa was allowed to continue the game, despite having his legs go out from underneath him on the field and the injury being touted as a back issue. The Dolphins organization certainly has some explaining to do. Furthermore, whenever anything goes sideways during a Thursday night game, I always question the wisdom of even having Thursday night games. Generally speaking, the games themselves are not great to watch because it’s not nearly enough time for players to recover physically from a Sunday game to be ready to roll on a Thursday. Perhaps the league can look into rearranging how the Thursday games are played and only schedule teams on Thursday night after a bye week. Any changes to the current Thursday night schedule would have to be worked out with Amazon, since they have an agreement in place with the league for the next 11 years. The NFL is contracted to 15 regular season games on Thursday nights but they don’t necessarily have to be played every week. In the interest of the player safety that the NFL always claims to care about, perhaps the Thursday night schedule could be altered to offer 2 games some weeks. There could be a 7pm kickoff for the first game and then West Coast opponents could play a later window game (akin to the 2 Monday night offerings to kick off the season). Since Thursday night football is here to stay, the league should make every effort to make it a better product and the safest situation possible for the players.
The Ravens and Bills both sit at 2-1 as they head toward their Week 4 matchup. The ramifications of this game cannot be understated as the winner will hold the all-important head to head tie breaker. Can the Ravens maligned defense do anything to slow down Josh Allen and company? Can Lamar Jackson deal with the Bills pass rush and continue the Ravens’ early season offensive roll? How will the weather impact this contest? The Ravens have had an uncharacteristic lack of success at M and T Bank stadium over the last few games; if there was ever a week to re-establish what has been one of the better home field advantages in the NFL, this is going to be it.
Jamie has been a Baltimore sports fan since he can remember. He grew up in Gwynn Oak and currently resides in Hampstead with his wife and 2 kids. He graduated from UMBC with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He’s currently employed at Verizon Communications in Hunt Valley.