Lamar Jackson's return lasted just one play. Now his season could be over.
Jackson suffered an injury to his right thumb on the Ravens' first play against the Buffalo Bills.
After the game, Head Coach Jesse Minter said Jackson will undergo surgery and be placed on injured reserve.
Asked whether it could be season-ending injured reserve, Minter said, "potentially."
"It's tough," Minter said. "When it happened, I think at the time, you're just hoping that maybe it's something small, and then I think pretty quickly kind of realized what had happened."
Jackson's right hand collided with Bills pass rusher Gregory Rousseau as he threw a pass. He immediately grabbed for his hand and came to the sideline and then locker room.
"That first play was super unfortunate," right tackle Roger Rosengarten said. "One hand away. Got to get more space away from Lamar, especially on the first one. That one is definitely eating at me, but have to move on to next week."
Jackson returned to the Ravens sideline in the third quarter with a cast on his right hand. He saw a Ravens offense struggling to overcome his loss.
"I was upset," said wide receiver Zay Flowers, who was held without a catch for the first time in his career. "I want him to play, so I was upset."
Tyler Huntley took over for Jackson, but he suffered a toe injury in the second quarter, thrusting undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano into action in his NFL debut. Fagnano went 10-of-21 for 91 passing yards with one interception and a fumble lost.
"That's a tough deal, and then the next guy [Huntley] as well [going down]," Minter said. "I thought Joe came in â to his credit, not really getting a lot of reps in preparation â hung in there, did some good stuff."
It has been a rough season for Jackson after it started with so much promise. Jackson looked primed for a big season in Offensive Coordinator Declan Doyle's first year and came out cooking in the season-opener in Indianapolis with four touchdowns on their first five drives.
It went sideways when Jackson suffered an ankle injury near the end of the first half against the Tennessee Titans as he was chased from behind and a defender landed on his ankle.
Jackson missed three games and the Ravens lost back-to-back games to AFC North rivals. Jackson's return this week sparked the team, but that was short-lived.
Baltimore has fallen to 4-4 and now is tasked with turning around its season without Jackson for extended time.
"Obviously, it's a tough break and it's sad, and a lot of unfortunate things went our way," veteran tight end Mark Andrews said.
"But we have a game in four days, so we have to be able to bounce back, get our bodies right, recover the best we can and be able to come back and fight through this adversity, fight through this battle. We're getting tested, and we have to respond."
