One small surprise from the Baltimore Ravens 53-man roster was seeing Tyler Huntley make it over Josh Johnson. It was not a shock to many because Huntley has been the backup for a couple of years now. However, Johnson started over Huntley in preseason week one, and Huntley has been injured for the past two weeks and counting.
When you add in that Todd Monken seemed to prefer Johnson, he may have had the lead for the backup quarterback spot. However, the injury to Huntley made it no debate at all. The team will be able to keep both quarterbacks when they place Huntley on the IR.
While the team did not officially add Huntley to the IR yet, there is a report that Josh Johnson plans to re-sign to the 53-man roster.
I’m told QB Josh Johnson, DB Kevon Seymour & DE Brent Urban are currently expected to be added to the #Ravens 53-man roster, per source.
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) August 30, 2023
This was definitely expected, especially because Johnson is a veteran who did not have to clear through waivers. The Baltimore Ravens could cut him without fear of losing him, knowing that they can get him back.
The reason they had to do it was to keep Huntley on the roster while placing him on IR. If the Ravens placed him on the IR before the initial 53-man roster then his season would be over. Letting him make the 53-man roster and then placing him on the IR means that he has a chance to come back this season.
He may not, but if something happened to either Lamar Jackson or Josh Johnson, the Ravens would rather feel good knowing that Huntley has a chance to come back, versus no chance if they put him on the IR yesterday.
Going on the IR today will mean that Tyler Huntley will miss at least four weeks. Over this time the Baltimore Ravens can get a longer look at Johnson and then decide whether to stick with Johnson or revert back to Huntley when he was healthy.
The move was expected, but we were not sure it would happen because no one knew the severity of the Huntley injury. Now that Johnson is coming back, it would be shocking to see Huntley not land on the injured reserve.