Following an exciting practice on Wednesday in which the Baltimore Ravens returned to The Castle in near-full-capacity, Thursday's session and injury report took a turn for the bad.
The Ravens released their latest IR ahead of the Week 1 season opener against the Houston Texans following their training session and they kept Mark Andrews listed while adding a surprising new player to it in WR Odell Beckham Jr.
Thursday's Injury Report for Week 1: pic.twitter.com/UXJJRpOBMU
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 7, 2023
As you can see, the Ravens kept Andrews listed as "limited" while removing that tag from Ronnie Stanley, who finally and promisingly transitioned from "limited" on Wednesday to "full" participant on Thursday.
Beckham's addition, though, was a shocking and unexpected one. Here is our breakdown of each of the players' listed status and what might come next if they are forced to miss Week 1 or if they return.
OT Ronnie Stanley - Full
Stanley is the second-highest earner left tackle (per Over The Cap) for a reason, so it's out of the question how valuable he is to the Baltimore Ravens and how vital his presence is on the field
Good news, Stanley finally practiced as a full participant on Thursday following some limited action on Wednesday's training session with some ankle issues.
Stanley has missed 33 games between 2020 and 2022, which is a rather large amount of matchups in which the Ravens and, most prominently, Lamar Jackson have not been able to enjoy his crucial presence on the gridiron.
This summer marked the first one in a long time in which Stanley entered the preseason and the regular season with a clean bill of health.
That changed earlier this week, but now that he's off the Injury Report it all looks more like the Ravens have taken some precautionary measures rather than the tackle suffering any concerning injury.
TE Mark Andrews - Limited
Tight end Mark Andrews suffered a quad injury during a pregame practice all the way back on Aug. 21st. He never graced the training field since then, missing six consecutive practices leading up to this week, just mere days before the season opener against the Texans on Sunday.
Andrews made his comeback on Wednesday after head coach John Harbaugh revealed on Monday that was the exact timeline for the TE to make his return to training. However, Andrews has been "limited" in practicing for the past two days.
The favorite target of Lamar Jackson wasn't as sure as to give 100% to his availability for Sunday's opener, but Andrews said "God willing, I'll be out there," per BaltimoreRavens.com.
Andrews stated that he's taking his recovery "day by day" and "doing his thing." The tight end also revealed that he suffered the injury "during practice" and admitted he just doesn't know how to "throttle down," as quoted by Ryan Mink of BaltimoreRavens.com.
If Andrews cannot play Sunday, then it'd be TE2 Isaiah Likely and TE3 Charlie Kolar taking snaps in his place. That'd be no good news for the Ravens, though.
You just saw what happened to the reigning champions when opening the 2023 NFL regular season against the Detroit Lions, led by QB Patrick Mahomes but missing TE Travis Kelce.
The Texans aren't an otherworldly team or anything remotely approaching that, but not having Andrews on the field would definitely hurt the Ravens' offensive upside mightily.
WR Odell Beckham Jr. - Limited
Alright folks, it's time to worry.
This came out of the absolute blue and was a shocker, but the Ravens listed OBJ in their Thursday injury report and nobody has a clue what is going on here.
It's more than probable that Baltimore is just taking it easy with the veteran receiver, who has been out for more than a year and a half, but he'll have to wait and see what happens through the remainder of the week leading up to Sunday's kickoff to know more.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network first reported the news, but it's not that he added any information to what the Ravens revealed by listing OBJ in their official report.
As they did with Ronnie Stanley, it's probable that the Ravens are just being excessively cautious here, which is nothing bad with a man who hasn't graced the field for more than 18 months.
Believe everything on the internet …😭😎
— Odell Beckham Jr (@obj) September 7, 2023
The fact that OBJ threw the cryptip message included above into the free world after Thursday's practice and the injury report was out was rather funny, interesting, and perhaps revealing about how calm the receiver is about the whole situation.
This definitely calls for super close attention because the Ravens listed OBJ as their "unofficial" WR1 in the depth chart the franchise released ahead of the Week 1 opener.
Missing Odell would mean putting Nelson Agholor (WR4) in the spotlight or using a WR-by-committee approach to handle the WR3 position including ancillary contributors like Devin Duvernay and Tylan Wallace.
CB Marlon Humphrey - DNP
No real update when it comes to the leader of the Ravens secondary's availability. Humphrey missed another practice on Thursday while rehabbing his injury.
Humphrey (whose contract was restructured on Wednesday) has not practiced since mid-August and the franchise decided to allow him to undergo surgery in order to fast-track his return even if that means he misses a few games at the start of the season.
If Humphrey misses Week 1 (or any further game) then the Ravens are expected to deploy either both Rock Ya-Sin and Ronald Darby across from each other; or one of those across from Brandon Stephens on the opposite sideline.
In other cornerback news, there is still no clarity about who will be the main nickel corner in Week 1, with former Pittsburgh Steelers man Arthur Maulet and Ar'Darius Washington in contention to get the gig.