Gus Edwards: 'I'm Doing Great and I'm Very Close'
Running back Gus Edwards took to Instagram yesterday to provide an encouraging update on his rehab progress.
"For everybody wondering about my recovery I'm doing great and I'm very close," Edwards started his message with.
Edwards, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear just days prior to the start of the 2021 season, was placed on the reserve/physically unable to perform list a couple weeks ago, meaning he will be sidelined for at least the first four games of the season.
When healthy, the duo of J.K. Dobbins, who also suffered a season-ending ACL tear before the start of last season, and Edwards form a strong one–two punch at running back.
It's uncertain what the Ravens' backfield will look like for Sunday's season opener against the New York Jets. Head Coach John Harbaugh said yesterday that Dobbins is "ascending quickly" and "we'll see by the end of the week where we're at."
The Ravens' deep running back corps also includes experienced starters Mike Davis, and Kenyan Drake, and Justice Hill
Joe Flacco Reveals How He Felt About Ravens Moving on From Him
After Joe Flacco was officially named the starter for the Jets yesterday when they host the Ravens, he knew he'd be asked by reporters how he felt about facing the team he played with for 11 seasons and led to a Super Bowl victory.
One question was about how he felt when the Ravens traded him following the 2018 season and Lamar Jackson's emergence that led Baltimore to the playoffs. Were there any bad feelings?
"No, not really. I mean it's part of the business," Flacco said. "And obviously your competitive nature has certain feelings about it. But a lot of those things are out of my control to a certain extent. And like I said, what I've been trying to do ever since then is kind of just keep my head down and work and get better at football and look for the best opportunities I can."
Lamar Jackson Predicted to Win Three Different Individual Awards
The Ringer’s NFL writers have made their predictions for the playoffs and individual awards winners, and two writers are forecasting a huge season for Jackson.
The Ravens quarterback was Steven Ruiz's pick for Offensive Player of the Year.
"I'm trying to manifest here. The NFL is a hundred times more entertaining when Lamar is doing cool [stuff] on the field, so let's hope the Ravens have surrounded him with enough talent to help him do that," Ruiz wrote. "There isn't a better creative force in the league than Jackson, and he improves from the pocket every season. This will be the best version of Lamar we've ever seen."
If Ruiz's last statement proves prescient, the Ravens should win a lot of games this season considering they went 14-2 in 2019 when Jackson was voted the unanimous league MVP.
Jackson, who was sidelined for the final five games of the 2021 season with an ankle injury, was Nora Princiotti's choice to be the Comeback Player of the Year.
"I want to pick Lamar Jackson for this award and, if he qualifies, he should win it," Princiotti wrote. "I'm expecting the type of season from Jackson that would make him an MVP candidate. The counterargument is that his season-ending injury came after he'd already played 12 games, which isn't exactly notable in a sport as violent as football. But if we can consider Allen Robinson a candidate to 'come back' from playing with Blake Bortles and Mitch Trubisky, I think we can consider Jackson a candidate based on his injury and the total decimation of the Ravens' team health that occurred around him last year.
"If I can't take Jackson, I'm taking someone else from Baltimore's offense, like running back J.K. Dobbins, especially as Greg Roman's post–Hollywood Brown scheme commits even more fully to the running game. If I can't take Dobbins either, I'll go with Poe, the mascot who was run over by a youth football team during a preseason event. No, seriously."
None of The Ringer's 10 writers picked Baltimore to win the Super Bowl, but all of them have the Ravens making the playoffs, with seven of them going with them to win the AFC North.
Meanwhile, ESPN's Dan Graziano predicted that Jackson will win the MVP award.
"I don't know whether he'll get a contract extension done with the Ravens in the next three or four days. I kind of think he won't," Graziano wrote. "But if he can stay healthy all season, with a Ravens team that just has to be a ton more healthy than it was overall last season, he's the most vital and electrifying player in the league."
Jackson Is No. 7 in NFL.com's Quarterback Rankings
NFL.com’s Marc Sessler ranked all 32 starting quarterbacks ahead of the start of the season, and he has Jackson at No. 7.
"Jackson remains a central villain in the nightmares of defensive play-callers league-wide," Sessler wrote. "He roamed as an MVP candidate a month into last season before riding the waves of erratic play and eventually bowing out for the year with an ankle injury. Environment played a part, with Jackson struggling behind a shattered line inside an injury-stripped backfield that featured Raggedy Ann and Andy by December.
"He didn't finish 2021 as the seventh-best quarterback, but Lamar enters September as a bounce-back figure who can still do more with his physical gifts than 98.5 percent of the earth's population."
