Who will be the QB?: When talking about a matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, one of the first players the Steelers’ defenders talk about is quarterback Lamar Jackson.
But this week, Jackson’s status is unknown.
Jackson suffered a knee injury in the Ravens’ win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, and his availability for this week against the Steelers at Acrisure Stadium is unknown.
“It’s going to be a number (of) days to weeks. We’ll see,” said Ravens Coach John Harbaugh after the game. “We’ll see if he can go back this week. If not, it’ll be sometime after that shortly.”
With that uncertainty, the Steelers will be ready for whoever starts, whether it’s Jackson or Tyler Huntley, who led them on a 91-yard game-winning drive on Sunday.
“Lamar is such a unique challenge,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith. “We just got to be able to get after him. And Huntley is a good guy as well. They’re both very dangerous. We just got to be able to get to whoever plays.
“Huntley has a very unique talent as well. We just got to be locked in on him as well. They got so many weapons on offense, so we just got to lock in and be in our P’s and Q’s and just really have a good game plan against these guys.”
The Steelers faced Huntley in Week 18 last season when he started for an injured Jackson, intercepting him twice in a 16-13 overtime win.
“We saw him last year at the end of the year when Lamar was hurt,” said defensive end Chris Wormley. “It’s really hard to replace a guy like Lamar. He’s been in the system for a couple of years now. He can do some similar things, but I think Lamar is in a class of his own with what he can do with his legs, throwing the ball, just his command of the offense. When you have a guy like Huntley who has been there a couple of years, he can still do some things, but I think it’s going to be hard to replace a guy like Lamar if he’s not healthy.”
Both Jackson and Huntley bring mobility, something that is going to be the norm for the Steelers down the stretch, and you can be sure the defense will be looking to see which of the two they will face this week.
“This next month is going to be how can we contain mobile quarterbacks and I think our success, at least on defense, is going to be predicated on how well we do that,” said Wormley. “Lamar is in a class of his own. He is the best player on their team. If a guy is in or out, we are looking as a defense as to how that fits our scheme, what we are going to do. Huntley is similar, but like I keep saying, Lamar is a different breed of quarterback.”
