Baltimore Beatdown
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said on Monday that he is “very confident” that star quarterback Lamar Jackson will return to the field in Week 9.
“”We’ll expect him to be out there Thursday night,” he added.
Last Monday, Harbaugh declined to comment on Jackson’s return, saying “we’ll see who’s back and who practices on Wednesday.”
On Wednesday, Jackson practiced. When asked about his chances of playing in Week 8, Harbaugh said that it was “hard to put a number on it…I really don’t have any shareable, injury intelligence.”
Harbaugh wasn’t at the podium on Thursday; on Friday, he said that Jackson had a “full practice.” Obviously, that was not the case, as full participation with the scout team does not qualify as a full practice. (The resulting change to their injury report ruled Jackson out and inspired an league investigation.)
Notably, though, Harbaugh did not use the word ‘confident’ in regards to Jackson last week. Before the bye, he said that he was “hopeful” that Jackson would return in Week 8, but that word (or any other derivation) didn’t come up last week, either.
Harbaugh is a practitioner of coachspeak, just like the rest of the league, but his specific verbiage last week may have been an early sign that Jackson’s return was not as likely as most thought. More important is Jackson’s upgrade to full participation in Monday’s walk-through, a more reliable indicator that he is trending towards playing this week.
