Lamar Jackson tells Ravens he plans to return from thumb surgery this season

Lamar Jackson has told his Baltimore Ravens teammates he intends to play again this season, even though his fractured and dislocated right thumb requires surgery, according to a report from NFL Network citing unnamed sources.

Jackson delivered the message within a day of the injury, the report said, at a point when teammates had feared the two-time MVP was done for the year. The sources paraphrased it as a request to keep the season alive long enough for him to get back. Teammates who heard it called his words "energizing" and "exciting."

The Ravens have placed Jackson on injured reserve, but they have not ruled him out for the season. Recovery from this injury usually takes at least six weeks and can take as long as nine, according to the report. If his rehab stays on that schedule without setbacks, he could be available by early January.

That is the optimistic reading. The harder problem is whether Baltimore will still have anything to play for by then.

The Ravens are 4-5 and have lost four straight. The latest was a 33-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday, with undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano starting at quarterback. Baltimore has now scored fewer than 14 points in four consecutive games, a franchise record for offensive futility. It has also lost three straight games by 20 points or more, which had never happened in the team's 31-year history.

Those numbers show how much of this offense depends on one player. Jackson missed three games with a high ankle sprain. In his first game back, against the Buffalo Bills, he hurt his thumb on Baltimore's first offensive snap. In practice, the Ravens have spent the past month without their franchise quarterback, and the results have been lopsided losses, not narrow ones.

The depth chart has thinned out behind him as well. Tyler "Snoop" Huntley, the backup Baltimore has turned to in past Jackson absences, is also on injured reserve with a toe injury. NFL Network's sources said he is expected to miss the rest of the season.

To stop the slide, Baltimore finalized a trade for veteran Jacoby Brissett on Friday. Brissett is expected to start the Ravens' Monday night game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 16. He has been the stopgap starter for several franchises over his career, and his experience counts for something in a locker room that just watched an undrafted rookie try to hold the offense together.

The trade also says something about how the front office sees this season. Some around the league had wondered whether Baltimore would sell at the trade deadline. Adding a starting-caliber quarterback is not what a team planning to give up on the year usually does. Along with Jackson's stated plan to return, the move suggests the Ravens still see a path to the playoffs.

That path looks narrow. Brissett is a capable game manager, but this offense has not cleared two touchdowns in a month, and he arrives in the middle of the season with little time to learn a system built around Jackson's running ability. A Week 13 bye gives the staff a short break to adjust. Before that, though, Brissett will probably need wins right away, because a team at 4-5 cannot afford to let another few weeks go by.

If Jackson does return, the most realistic window lines up with a demanding finish. Baltimore plays the Cleveland Browns on Dec. 27 in Week 16. Four days later it plays a Thursday night game in Cincinnati against the Bengals. The regular season ends at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 18.

Asking a quarterback coming off hand surgery to play twice in five days is a hard test, and the injured hand is his throwing hand. A thumb that is not fully healed can affect grip and accuracy. Even a Jackson at 80% may give Baltimore its best chance in a must-win game. But the team will have to decide whether bringing him back early is worth the risk to a player who is central to its plans well beyond this season.

Jackson's pledge is exactly what a struggling locker room needs to hear, and it seems to have worked on his teammates. Still, it changes only the motivation. The games between now and January will be decided by Brissett and a defense that has to keep scores close, and the Ravens' record when he takes over gives them very little room for error.