 As we all sit at the end of the bar, getting ready to watch the Ravens last regular season game of the year tomorrow. And man, that's kind of crazy how fast this season went. We always talk about it. And it's so sad how fast the season goes. But as we get ready to watch the Ravens last regular season game of the year, there will be no Lamar Jackson. And you know what's crazy? What's crazy is I remember there was some fans saying, like that this injury, the way that the Ravens had talked about the injury, the way that Hardball talked about the injury, from the beginning, there were Ravens fans who sat at the end of the bar and said that, man, this really seems like last year. It seems like last season where we're led to believe that the injury's not that bad. Where we're told that the injury's not that serious. Where we're told that Ravens star quarterback, Lamar Jackson is weak to weak. He could come back anytime, but he didn't. He didn't. He didn't. Two years straight. We've been told, oh yeah, it's weak to weak. Oh yeah, he could be back soon. Oh, he's questionable going into this weekend. We haven't made an official report on him yet. Or is injury designation on him yet? He didn't play for the rest of the year last year. That's what we kept hearing last year. And then this year early on, that's what we kept hearing too. And then it changed, I don't know. Then the Hardball the other day, he just said, hey, I know people are tired of hearing me say this and that and the third and da, da, da, da. And he basically said, hey, I don't know. I don't know. Even though the Ray, that's the head coach and they had just gave this really intricate, detailed breakdown of Tyler Huntley's shoulder injury in a press of this past week. But for Lamar Jackson, you don't know. Or is it that you just don't know how he's gonna respond? Cause it's two different things. But anyway, some more updates, I guess, came out about Lamar Jackson from Ian Rappaport and Adam Schefter. Adam Schefter said, despite being ruled out for Sunday regular season finale, not having practiced once in over a month and still having swelling in his knee. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has a strong chance of playing Baltimore's wild card game next weekend per a league source and strong swelling in his knee. Oof, that's what it was all about from jump. How his knee would respond to the swelling. What would go down with his knee? Well, hopefully the swelling would. And Lamar Jackson, today, he was doing a lot of reposts and whatnot and Isaiah Likeley had shown a video of Lamar Jackson on a trainer table getting his knee worked on. So that kind of like an indirect way of sort of shutting down that whole thing saying Lamar ain't been showing up to the treatment. So what, anyway, that's interesting. And then Ian Rappaport also, cause you know, like this, this ain't just no average quarterback who they talking about. So all the big name reporters, they all talking about it. Ian Rappaport said Ravens coach John Harbaugh is hopeful Lamar Jackson has told people he believes he'll be good to go into playoffs. Others who have monitored it closely aren't so sure. And that's something to think about. That's scary to think about. Like a lot of Ravens fans, we understand like, hey, things are looking a little bleak right now with the Ravens playoffs shot, but hey, they are in the playoffs. So as long as they in there, they got a shot. But things will look a lot brighter with a Lamar Jackson rather than a Tyler Huntley or possibly even an Anthony Brown. And that's no offense to Tyler or Anthony at all but Lamar Jackson obviously the more seasoned quarterback, the more experienced quarterback and whatnot and he's the better quarterback. He is Lamar Jackson. So Ravens fans would feel a lot more hopeful for their season to continue every week in the playoffs if Lamar Jackson is under center rather than the other two. But you gotta wonder for playoff time if it will actually be one of the other two. I remember back when the injury first happened. I remember hearing so many people say that Lamar Jackson, his season is over. That's it. That's a wrap. And I was thinking, I don't know about all that. Nah, I don't think that. Nah, nah, it ain't going, that's not. But here we are. Here we are with a possibility that he could play next week. But he also could not. And that's something that's really scary to think about. It's very, very scary to think about. And of course there are a lot of people who feel like Lamar Jackson. If he does play next week, then this could be his farewell tour for the Baltimore Ravens. And there's some people, if he doesn't play next week then people feel like he may have played his last snap as a Baltimore Raven. And of course that's still to be determined. But this year it's scary to think about. Let's look at the article from Ian Rappaport. He said, there's no bigger question for the upcoming playoffs than this. When will Lamar Jackson play? The answer, no one can say for sure. No one truly knows. Raven Star quarterback has been sidelined since December 4th with a PCL sprain and has not practiced since suffering the injury. The original thought was that he faced one to three weeks of recovery time, yet this is now his fifth miss game with Snoop starting. And yeah, I remember, I certainly remember that report that said it's a one to three week injury and he should be back in three, I remember it. I think it was from Ian Rappaport, I believe, but regardless. And that's apparently what the Ravens are telling people too. Remember Rich Eisen? He just talked about it this past week on the show. That the Ravens told him that it was a one to three week thing and they gave an expiration. They gave, expiration. They gave an expectation date on when they expected him back. But anyway, continuing, he said, while acknowledging the uncertainty the situation brings, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh told reporters on Friday will be hopeful for next week. Jackson also indicated to people close to him that he's confident he'll play in the playoffs, but others who have watched him closely aren't as convinced. It appears Jackson has done what he's been asked from rehab sessions to training sessions to recovery. So Ian Rappaport clarifying that, hey, Jackson been taking care of his business. He been doing everything that he even needed to do to come back, but ain't nothing happened yet. As far as his body, I guess his body ain't responding like they would hope it would. But his status, which has been evaluated on a week to week basis is unknown. This is not a scenario of Jackson simply waiting for the playoffs and then will be a go. Regardless, Jackson knee hasn't felt quite right despite the work he's put in to try to get it feeling right so he hasn't practiced. And ooh, it's so tough because, man, you gotta play the long game with this one. And it's tough. I know it's tough for Lamar. I'm sure it's tough for the Ravens. It's tough for everybody because you really gotta play the long game with this one. Especially for Lamar. Because the Ravens, depending on how they feel about him for the future, if they feel like he will be that guy for the future, then you definitely gotta play the long game. But since this is the NFL, if he's not that guy for the future, then you would wanna rush him back so you can get the best possible chance of winning in the playoffs that you can get. But as far as Lamar side, you gotta play the long game because your career just getting started. It's just getting started. Yeah, this is your fifth year, but you're very young and you got the NFL world ahead of you. So, wow, you do wanna come back and play in the playoffs and we all want you to come back and play in the playoffs but we all also remember RG3 when he came back too early and he wasn't ready to play. That just killed his career. Killed his career. And that was his rookie year, Washington. He's the reason that Washington was even in the playoffs. And he came back too early because that was when Lody Nauta. Lody Nauta's the one that actually broke RG3 that year. In that game Raven versus Washington and Washington rushed him back and nothing was ever the same. Nothing, nothing. So, if you're Lamar Jackson, you don't want that to happen. You don't wanna go through that same thing. We've seen players come back early. We've seen players rush back from injury early and it can change everything in such a bad way. So, I know as fans, we wanna see Lamar Jackson out. We wanna see him out there bad. Especially because we've been seeing what's been out there. Yeah, it ain't been so pretty. But I know as a fan, it's hard. It's almost impossible to think of the long game when it comes to this thing. To think long term. Because fans, we just think short term. We're like right here, right now. This how we want it, boom. But you gotta think of it from a player's perspective too. They're not just playing for this next game. They're not just playing for this next week. They're playing for their careers. And NFL obviously stands for not for long and you don't want your career to be not for long. You don't want it to be cut short. But anyway, getting back to the article again. It says, what could be taken so long? Those familiar with the injury offer two possible explanations. One is that PCL injuries can sometimes take longer than say MCLs. And to be sure, it has been longer than anyone expected. The other is that perhaps the way Jackson plays the position has lengthened the timeframe. Jackson, the 2019 MVP is one of the NFL's most dynamic players. But to be himself, his knee needs to be 100%. Can he really be Lamar if his knee isn't all the way back? If Jackson can't play in next week's Super Wild Card weekend, the belief is he can go the following week. If Baltimore advances in the playoffs. This is a scary season, baby. This is a scary season. Cause like I know most people's concern, a lot of first people's concern was obviously his health. But then the second concern was a rust. So I know, but somebody burned out a really great point. They were like, man, with Lamar Jackson, remember when he got hurt last year? His first game back was week one, week two. He ain't look rusty and old at all. He look good week three. Lamar was out there killing it, killing it. So should we really be afraid of rust when it comes to Lamar Jackson? I don't think so. But you want him to be out there as soon as possible. The hope was that, obviously the hope was that he could be back weeks ago. But now I think the hope has shifted to where hopefully he can practice, get acclimated with his guys and practice next week. And then play in the playoff game. And if not, then that's that. But we'll see. Anyway, I love y'all team, keep it clean. I appreciate y'all team, keep it clean. And I will see you all. Wow, that's so sad, saying it out loud. I will see you all in the Ravens regular season finale tomorrow. We out.