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TUESDAY’S HOT TAKES: Are The Ravens in Trouble?

Tuesday, October 28, 2025 13:49
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The Ravens ended their 4-game skid while the rest of the AFC North lost. The combination without question put a bounce in the step of RavensFlock but to maintain it, John Harbaugh & Co. will have to take care of business in Miami. The Ravens are currently listed as 7 ½ point favorite – a line that has been clearly established with the promise of Lamar Jackson’s return to the lineup.

But given Lamar’s mercurial personality, until he’s behind center at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night, anything is possible.

Elsewhere in the AFC North the Steelers host the AFC’s best team, the Indianapolis Colts (not a typo) while the Bengals host the Bears. Both AFCN hosts are underdogs with the Steelers getting 3 and the Bengals 2 ½. Browns fans get to put their weekly embarrassment on hold. They get a bye.

Put me down for another clean sweep for the Ravens as they take care of business in South Florida while the Steelers struggles continue, and the Bears bounce back in Cincinnati.

The Jig is up in Pittsburgh

Heading into the season, talking heads all over chatted incessantly about the Steelers who were doing some non-Steelers things. Pittsburgh is known to take care of their own (more on that in a moment) but in the past, they’ve rarely made big trades or free agent splashes. This offseason was different. The Steelers GM Omar Khan swung for the fences and sometimes when you do, you strike out. And for now, Khan is wearing the Golden Sombrero.

The Steelers brought in Aaron Rodgers, D.K. Metcalf, Jonnu Smith, Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay. Cam Heyward felt disrespected and held out until he got the money he felt he deserved. Same with TJ Watt. And for the moment the Steelers look like an aging and overpaid team. Despite the bold and expensive moves, the news is out. The Steelers are frauds! And staying with the “Renegade” theme, could this be the end today of the wanted man (Mike Tomlin)?

Florio-ee-oooh-oh

Speaking of the Steelers, one of their biggest fans, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, is campaigning for a heavy punishment for the Ravens given the Injury Report faux pas from this past Friday regarding Lamar Jackson’s status. Florio writes:

“It was all a big mistake by the Ravens (which would still be a violation of the policy) or it was a deliberate effort by the Ravens to create the impression that Lamar Jackson would be starting on Sunday, in order to dupe the Bears into preparing for him and not for Tyler Huntley. If it’s the latter, the outcome for the Ravens could be not good.

Hovering over all of this is the potential gambling angle. Obviously, any evidence that anyone who knew the truth about Lamar’s status utilized the misdirection for gambling purposes would open another can of worms — including (based on the policy) potential termination of employment and lifetime banishment from the league.

There’s currently no evidence that the mischaracterization of Jackson’s status has any connection to gambling. Given the overall environment, and based on the terms of the policy, the NFL has no choice but to investigate that wrinkle.”

Full disclosure, I’m not a Florio fan. I think he’s an opportunist and for the most part PFT should be parked at the supermarket checkout counter with all the other gossip rags. I’m not a fan. But he’s on point with his takes on the Ravens and the way they handled Lamar’s injury status on Friday, PARTICULARLY a day after the sordid details of the NBA gambling saga hit the mainstream.

  • I’m not buying for a second that John Harbaugh doesn’t know the rules of injury reporting.
  • I’m not buying for a second that the Ravens PR staff doesn’t know the rules of injury reporting.
  • I’m not buying for a second that Harbaugh hasn’t always been and continues to be fully engaged in gamesmanship when it comes to injury reporting.

And perhaps the biggest head-scratcher of all, why is Lamar Jackson, amid a month-long hamstring injury, out on the practice field taking all the scout team reps? In what universe does this make sense?

This saga smells as foul as a bad day along Back River. And now I’m wondering if someone will fall on the sword for the team and perhaps lose their job to stave off the kind of penalty that Florio suggests in the video below. Or, might the team let this play out and take their chances and hope for a light fine while Harbaugh swaddles himself in the comfort of plausible deniability.

Shock The Monken Tonight

Ravens OC Todd Monken is fired up. I wonder if The Sun or The Baltimore Banner will get an exclusive with him anytime soon. Surely I jest.

But Monken has reason to be pissed off. Besides the poorly sourced hit pieces taken by The Sun and The Banner, even his own boss has thrown him under the bus repeatedly this season while simultaneously supporting the assistant coach that single-handedly has inflicted the most damage to the Ravens 2025 Super Bowl aspirations.

That said, I like angry Todd.

The Ravens need a little more of that on and off the field!

Something About Cleveland

Not the city, the player.

It is well known that John Harbaugh advocated for Ben Cleveland on Draft Day. And then one day at training camp he ended up in John’s doghouse. The 94th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft has started just 7 times during his 5-year career. Four of those starts happened during his rookie season and of the 3 other starts since, two were during games when the Ravens already had their playoff seeding locked up and they rested many starters.

It has been a perplexing career from the jump for Cleveland.

What has changed since the days when Harbaugh convinced Eric DeCosta that Cleveland was the guy? What did he see in Ben that he didn’t see in Quinn Meinerz, taken four picks after the Ravens turned in the card for Cleveland?

In case you are keeping score, Meinerz was a 1st Team All Pro in 2024.

The Big Crab Cake

The Big Crab Cake, sponsored by Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, is given to the Ravens player deemed to be that week’s unsung hero. This week’s BCC goes to a player who understood the importance of a win on Sunday and with that understanding showed a willingness to play hurt. He’s a player who has had a very solid career, is a decorated Pro Bowler and All Pro but has had his fair share of bad luck with the injury bug.

On Sunday, he fought off the pain of yet another leg injury, presumably his chronic ankle, and returned to the field. Along the way he helped to spring a couple of chunk runs by Keaton Mitchell and another by Tyler Huntley. He was also instrumental in giving Huntley adequate time to set and throw throughout the afternoon.

The Week 8 Big Crab Cake goes to Ronnie Stanley!

On November 10 as part of their series, Meet The Birds, Jimmy’s Seafood is featuring Nate Wiggins. Learn about what Nate is like off the field, while still spotlighting some of his greatest career achievements including is game changing interception this past Sunday against the Bears! Guests will receive a photo with Nate – and will have one item of their choosing autographed. For more details, CLICK HERE.


Quick Hits

Protecting Quarterbacks

I get that Patrick Mahomes has gotten more calls from refs than Heidi Fleiss has received from Charlie Sheen. But this one – no begging required. This was properly flagged.

B-Steve

If you put stock in what PFF sells, former Ravens CB Brandon Stephens is balling. I can’t say one way or another. I’ve only watched one Jets game and that was against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. I saw nothing different in that game than what I have for years when Stephens wore the purple and black. And that is, a player who’s generally where he should be but never turns to look for the football and as such is a regular loser on contested catches and back-shoulder throws.

I ain’t buying it PFF!

J-Tuck

It still feels a bit odd to see No. 33 take the field when the Ravens are lining up in field goal formation. No. 9 remains the Ravens kicker in my mind’s eye. That’s not a knock against Tyler Loop. It’s just that old habits die hard.

Justin Tucker is eligible to return to action on November 11. And there are a few teams well-entrenched in the playoff mix that may be open to Tucker’s services. The Bucs, Eagles, Seahawks and Lions could all use more efficiency at the position. Click on the tweet below to see if other fans expect Tucker in uniform soon.

Keaton Mitchell

Several weeks ago I campaigned for Keaton Mitchell but instead of activating him, John Harbaugh let others who don’t impact games anywhere near as much as Mitchell, dress on Sundays instead of the speedy back. But Keaton got another chance on Sunday against the Bears. Harbaugh seemed impressed.

“I thought [Keaton Mitchell] made a big statement. I just really did. It’s great to see. He’s been working hard, and he got his chance. He proved to be ready for it, and the time was right. We just have to keep building on that going forward.”

The time has always been right John!

Hey do you think now that the team used Keaton as the feature player in this week’s “Gameday Threads” post that John could still list him as “inactive”?

Or does he not know how that works either?

The post TUESDAY’S HOT TAKES: Are The Ravens in Trouble? appeared first on Russell Street Report.


Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/10/28/tltakes/ravens-in-trouble/


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