Will QB Lamar Play? Cowboys Have 'Info'

Will Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson Play? The Dallas Cowboys Have 'Info' - And A Plan

Mike Fisher | Dec 4, 2020

FRISCO - In Baltimore, the Ravens are being coy about the Tuesday game day availability of QB Lamar Jackson.

In Dallas, the Cowboys have a plan.

"I think we have to clearly prepare as if Lamar is going to play,'' Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said here at The Star on Friday before the team's workout. "Obviously, he's a dynamic player."

McCarthy indicated that Dallas has "information'' on the likelihood of Jackson's participation. If so, he's not getting it from the Ravens, who lost to the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday with 17 players sidelined and on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

Among the absent: Seven Pro Bowl selections and reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Jackson.

And this week, coach John Harbaugh?

“They all have their different days when they’re possibly allowed to come back, but those are medical decisions, in the end, not coaching decisions,” Harbaugh said. “So when the doctors clear them to practice, that’s when we’ll have them.”

And ... Lamar Jackson?

“I think I already answered that,'' the coach said, providing to be as elusive at the podium as the electric Jackson is on the field.

The 6-5 Ravens are a talented team but a COVID-ravaged one. They have endured three straight losses, despite the fact that some critics wonder why the NFL keeps moving their games ... while not extending every team with illnesses the same courtesy.

Either way, this is a crucial Tuesday night matchup for both team, the visiting Cowboys at 3-8 but trying to stay alive in the wobbly NFC East while led by Andy Dalton (the former Bengals QB who of course has a rich history with Baltimore), the Ravens trying to recapture some of their 2019-playoffs-level magic.

The Ravens needed two QBs, Robert Griffin III and Trace McSorley, to get through its last game. This time? RG3 is now out ... And we're told that in Baltimore, maybe the thinking is it's 50/50 on Lamar Jackson playing.

In Dallas? The "information'' says the Cowboys better be ready for the return of the MVP.

Published Dec 4, 2020

MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.