Ravens starting quarterback Lamar Jackson will not play in the regular-season finale Jan. 6 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, head coach John Harbaugh announced Jan. 3 as the team has chosen to rest the likely league MVP in advance of the NFL playoffs.
“Just all things considered, it seemed to be the right thing to do,” Harbaugh said. “You have conversations with Lamar and others, and you make the decision.”
Of the decision to sit, Jackson said, “I’m cool with it. Me and Coach talked about it. I felt like it was [most] suitable to sit me and stuff like that for this run.”
Led by Jackson, the Ravens have rolled to a 13-3 record and have secured the AFC’s No. 1 seeding, rendering the result of the Steelers game irrelevant to the Ravens’ playoff position. With that, Tyler Huntley will start at quarterback for the Ravens, backed up by veteran Josh Johnson, Harbaugh said.
Huntley has appeared sparingly in four games this season, going 6-for-9 for 57 yards and two touchdowns. He has made eight career starts, with a record of 3-5.
Harbaugh said No. 4 quarterback Malik Cunningham, signed off the New England Patriots’ practice squad three weeks ago, also will be active and is likely to see time on special teams and at wide receiver.
Jackson finishes his season 307-for-457 for 3,678 yards, all career highs. His completion percentage of 67.2 percent is also the best of his career, and he is coming off a five-touchdown performance against Miami in which he posted the third perfect passer rating (158.3) of his career.
Jackson’s final passer rating of 102.7 is the second-best of his career, topped only in his MVP season of 2019 (113.3).
The Steelers (9-7) enter the game in must-win mode as they compete for a final playoff spot, and Harbaugh said his team, with or without Jackson and several other starters, will be highly motivated against their bitter AFC North rivals.
“There’s no lack of motivation for sure,” he said. “The guys playing in the game are going to give it all they have. You have to. And the guys playing the game want to win each play, and they want to win the game. … We’re playing a division rival, so you know what goes with that.”
In addition to Jackson, it’s likely that several starters who are dealing with injuries will sit out the Steelers game. Safety Kyle Hamilton (knee), cornerback Brandon Stephens (ankle) and guard Kevin Zeitler (quad/knee) all missed the Ravens’ 56-19 win against Miami this past week and are unlikely to play this week.
In addition, cornerback Marlon Humphrey (calf) left that game with an injury, and several other starters are also dealing with nagging injuries and could benefit from two weeks off; the Ravens have earned a first-round playoff bye as the No. 1 seed.
Other than Jackson, the only player Harbaugh definitively ruled out is reserve safety Daryl Worley, who is dealing with shoulder and ankle injuries.
The debate about rest vs. rust has resurfaced this week with inevitable comparisons to 2019. That season, Jackson was on his way to a unanimous MVP award and the Ravens had wrapped up the AFC’s top seeding before the regular-season finale.
Several starters sat out that game — also against Pittsburgh — and then had a bye week to further rest up for the playoffs.
But after what amounted to a two-week layoff for several starters, the team came out flat and suffered a stunning 28-12 loss to the sixth-seeded Tennessee Titans, leading some to question whether Harbaugh would change his approach this time around.
“We remember 2019,” Harbaugh said earlier this week. “It’s not something we’re going to forget.”
Harbaugh was asked about the 2019 season again a few days later, and he’ll probably be asked about it every time he meets with the media leading up to their first playoff game.
“I remember the experience and the choices we made, but the decisions we made, we made for certain reasons, and we thought they were the right decisions,” he said. “What impacted what [and] how in terms of us not playing our best football that day, it’s really hard to say what the cause and effect was. We just didn’t. … We have to play way better than that next game if we want to win.”
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