2025 was a difficult season for the Baltimore Ravens, as they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021 and Lamar Jackson missed four games with injury in one of the worst seasons of his Hall of Fame career. 2026 got off to a promising start — Baltimore was 3-1 through four weeks — but Jackson suffered a high-ankle sprain, and the Ravens currently sit at the bottom of the AFC North at 4-3.
However, Jackson is trending in the right direction. He didn’t play in Week 7 despite practicing in a limited capacity all week, but according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, he was a full participant in practice on Wednesday and is expected to play in Week 8 against a fellow 2018 draftee and MVP rival, Buffalo Bills signal-caller Josh Allen.
Presuming Jackson is fully fit, he’ll immediately resume his status as a must-start fantasy asset.
Results and Usage
In the first three and a half games of the season, Jackson was his typically efficient self, completing 70.8% of his passes for 967 yards, six touchdowns, and one interception and adding a further 19 carries, 144 yards, and one score on the ground. He leads the league in adjusted yards per attempt, net yards per attempt, and adjusted net yards per attempt for the second time in his career, although he’s since been passed by the San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy for the all-time career lead in passer rating and adjusted yards per passing attempt.
Advanced numbers love Jackson. He’s posted the highest offensive grades at Pro Football Focus among 36 qualified quarterbacks, the second time in the past three seasons that he has ranked first. Jackson also leads the league in completion percentage over expectation, completing passes at a rate 7.1 percentage points better than expected, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. He’s managed his impressive numbers despite averaging more intended air yards per passing attempt than any other qualified quarterback in football, and he’s only made three turnover-worthy throws on 96 total attempts.
Future Outlook
As long as Jackson is healthy, he will be a fantasy QB1. Although Jesse Minter and Declan Doyle operate a run-first offense, ranking second in rushing attempts and 28th in passing attempts, Jackson’s incredible efficiency should allow him to rack up enough yards. Despite dealing with plenty of injuries overall, Baltimore currently has a healthy wide receiver corps, and two-time Pro Bowler Zay Flowers is coming off of his best game of the season, an eight-catch, 137-yard, one-touchdown (30.7-DK FPT) effort against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7.
If Jackson’s injury still impacts him at all, it’ll predominantly be as a runner. His average rushing attempts per game dipped from 9.8 in the first seven seasons of his career to just 5.1 since the start of the 2025 campaign, although he’s still been plenty efficient with those looks. Last season, he also averaged his third-fewest yards before contact per attempt and his third-fewest yards after contact per attempt, so it’s possible that he could be afraid of re-injury. He also faced pressure at a pretty high rate in 2025, and the Ravens suffered a blow to their offensive line when rookie guard Vega Ioane suffered an MCL sprain in Week 7, which might limit his creativity if Ioane doesn’t play.
But even if Jackson is limited as a runner, his passing should be more than enough to make him a fantasy asset against the Bills. Buffalo has conceded the second-most FPTS per game to opposing quarterbacks this season, including the second-most passing yards per game and the seventh-highest passer rating. The Bills have done a decent job creating pressure, but if Jackson is willing to scramble, he is still the best runner in the game. In Jackson’s lone matchup against Buffalo in 2025, he finished with a season-high 29.4 DK FPTS, recording 209 yards through the air and an additional 70 on the ground.
