The Ravens May Lose Lamar Jackson for the Season. How Much Does One Player Matter?

Lamar Jackson hurt his right thumb against Buffalo on November 1, and the Baltimore Ravens are heading toward placing him on injured reserve. The team has also been dealing with injuries to its other quarterbacks, which makes a bad situation worse.

Football is the ultimate team sport. Eleven players on the field, dozens more in rotation, a coaching staff the size of a small company. Yet one injury to one thumb has the entire season in doubt. That is the odd truth about the quarterback position, and the Ravens are about to test it.

An offence designed around one man

Jackson is not an ordinary starter. He won the league MVP award unanimously in 2019, when he ran for 1,206 yards, still the single-season record for a quarterback. He won it again in 2023, and signed a five-year, $260 million extension that year.

Baltimore’s offence reflects those strengths. Designed runs, option reads and play-action are all built to take advantage of a quarterback who can beat defences with his arm and his legs. Defences must account for him on every snap, which opens space for the running backs and receivers.

Take him away, and the whole structure changes. A backup quarterback cannot run the same plays at the same level, so the coaching staff has to rewrite the playbook mid-season. That is hard enough with a normal rotation, and harder when the other quarterbacks on the roster are hurt as well.

What history says

The NFL offers a few useful precedents. In 2011, the Indianapolis Colts lost Peyton Manning before the season began and finished 2-14. They then drafted Andrew Luck with the first overall pick, which tells you how badly a franchise can be reshaped by one absence.

In 2008, the New England Patriots lost Tom Brady in the first game. Backup Matt Cassel went 11-5, and the team still missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker. That shows a good system can keep a team competitive but may not be enough for a deep run.

And in 2017, Philadelphia lost starting quarterback Carson Wentz late in the season. Backup Nick Foles took over and led the Eagles to a Super Bowl title. That proves a strong roster, a clear scheme and a hot backup can turn an injury into a story of resilience.

So the range of outcomes is wide. Everything depends on the quality of the backup, the flexibility of the coach and the strength of the roster around the quarterback.

The cost of building around one player

Baltimore’s situation raises a deeper question. A team that commits to a single quarterback tends to spend heavily on him, which leaves less money for depth elsewhere. The backup quarterback is often an afterthought, since a team hopes never to need him. That strategy works until the day it does not. If the starter goes down and the backup cannot cope, the season can collapse quickly, and the team has little room to recover.

The Ravens still have strengths. Their defence, their running game and their coaching staff give them tools to stay competitive. But a roster built around Jackson’s unique abilities is less equipped to adjust when he is not there.

It is worth remembering that injured reserve carries a minimum absence, so the earliest return is some weeks away. Whether a return this season is realistic depends on how the thumb heals and how the Ravens’ record holds up in the meantime.

Football teams are supposed to be bigger than any one player. The next few weeks in Baltimore will show how true that is.