Lamar Jackson positive for COVID-19: What’s next for Jackson, Ravens?

Lamar Jackson officially tested positive for COVID-19, as well as several other players. What’s next for the Baltimore Ravens?

The Baltimore Ravens faced a harsh reality when a slew of their players tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week, but it was dealt its biggest blow when Lamar Jackson officially tested positive for the disease. It is now likely that its game against the Pittsburgh Steelers will ultimately be postponed until the end of the season.

The real question now is what is next for the Baltimore Ravens?

Obviously, the first order of business is getting everyone through such an awful situation. COVID-19 is nothing to joke about and extra precautions need to be taken for it moving forward. Hopefully, the Ravens realize this and will start making better choices in terms of punishments and handling of the situation entirely. It shouldn’t take their MVP quarterback getting the disease to realize this.

In terms of a football standpoint, Baltimore needs to be prepared to play games without several key starters even besides Jackson. The team will likely be without Mark Ingram, J.K. Dobbins, Brandon Williams, Jihad Ward, and several others. These are big contributors to the team that will be detrimental to its success. Losing them is certainly a huge loss for the team and may cost them games. Baltimore will face the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns over the next two weeks, both of which will be featured on primetime television.

Baltimore should likely expect some punishment from the league for their actions, as is the same with the Tennessee Titans and Las Vegas Raiders for each team’s respective COVID-19 violations. Whether or not this results in fines, loss of draft picks, or otherwise, Baltimore must be ready for what the league has in store for them.

The game that was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving evening vs. the Steelers is now in question. At the time of writing this. the game has have been moved to Sunday at 1:15 PM EST. That is, of course, provided the game will kick off this Sunday and not at the end of the year as many are speculating.

Should the game proceed to be played on Sunday, the depth of the Ravens will be placed into question. Is Robert Griffin III good enough to lead this team? How will the run game look without its two star running backs? How will the defense function without some of its key contributors? These questions beckon the loudest and are detrimental to how the remainder of the season will proceed.

At the end of the day it’s absolutely for the best that this game got postponed. The health and safety of the players and staff is far more important than any football game. When this game does finally happen, we will be eagerly and nervously be waiting to see what happens next.